Could my power strip have killed all my AFCI's?
I have a newer home, and was having some electrical problems.  The problems were scattered all over the house, with tripping AFCI's as well as tripping GFCI's.

It turns out that all of the AFCI's as well as ALL of the GFCI's were cheap chinese knock-offs.  As I removed the first GFCI for replacement, I noticed it had no brand name on it, so I looked up the UL number to see who made it...  Turns out the number was fake, the unit was a cheap chinese knock off...  Later when I pulled the AFCI, I noticed it had the same UL number, along with no name brand on the UL stamp, even though it had a square D logo printed on the front.  When I went to look at a square D AFCI at the supply store, I saw it had a completely different UL imprint on it, with the manufacturer name.

The point is that I discovered that the electrical contractor that built my house used many non-certified Chinese knock-offs that resemble name brand devices.

The point is simple, you may also have non-functional chinese knock-offs in your home, and they may trip in non-standard ways.  

In my case, they seemed to trip too easily.  But it could just as easily go the other way and simply not trip.  Federal went out of business because they sold breakers that simply stopped tripping with age...  Lots of people died as a result.  

Regardless, if I see components like this fail, my instinct is to replace them all.  Even if they were good name brands when they were made, they can be bad a few years later.  Once electrical starts to act flakey, it is time to consider updating everything.  Even outlets need replacement with age.  When electricity does something bad, people can die...  there are good reasons to update electrical safety components from time to time... say every 10 to 15 years... sooner if they show issues. 

Federal went out of business when it was found that 60% of the components they made did not comply with UL listings, despite having UL certifications on everything.  They weren't the only company breaking the rules, they just are the one that got caught.