Brown spent foliage came out of ground

When I was cutting off the brown dead foliage from my tulip plants, many of the plants came out of the ground easily or they had already fallen out on their own. Is this a normal behavior for them at the end of the season. I live in northern Illinois.

Doug says that if the foliage came out of the ground - that's normal if the leaves are well and truly done. If the bulbs came out of the ground, you're pulling on the leaves, not cutting them. You'll need to get those pruners sharpened!