Severe side loading on one portion of the wheel is the usual culprit, e.g. sliding sideways into a curb. No way will normal cornering loads cause bent axles.
The other possibility is that the axle cracked at some point due to something like a hard drag launch with slicks, and that the crack has worked its way far enough through the axle to allow it to bend. That wouldn't seem to describe your condition, because the axle would have failed in short order after you began to notice the problem.
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