We all know this problem, it underlies nearly every other problem human societies have ever had, but it's insidious.  

All humanity, from our beginnings, needed numbers to compete.  A single human is simply not competitive, nor are single-family groupings.  Without extreme levels of technology, small human groups die out or barely struggle to survive.  And it takes larger groups to create and pass on technologies and lore effectively.  So we learned early to value groups and constantly try to grow.

And for a very long time, this worked well for humanity, despite frequent clashes between competing groups of humans.  In fact, to a large degree, such clashes simply furthered the paradigm of having as many people in a society as possible - since larger groups could, on average, usually defeat smaller groups.

The big transition began when we gained the ability to adapt environments to us, rather that adapting our lifestyles to the environment.  We no longer just defended against predators, we hunted them down and killed them.  We no longer gathered what we needed - we farmed and herded useful species, while wiping out those that didn't suit us.  The extinctions this caused were ignored, or even celebrated, as threats such animals posed were now eliminated.

Eventually, no external threats to human society existed - but we still had each other.  The contest had now become one of control, and each society raced to expand fast enough to survive against all the other surrounding cultures, some by agreements and trade, others by war, destruction, or enslavement.  More than ever, it was about growth.

But now the growth paradigm slowly began shifting, as economic growth was the goal, not so much masses of population.  Masses of unskilled workers were quickly losing their value in the power game.  For the first time, the will to do work was not enough to assure a person of a sustainable position in society. 

The second new effect was on the planetary resource bases themselves, something humans had never before had the ability to impact (aside from the aforementioned extinctions).  But now, the easy access to metals and energy supplies was fading, as the most obvious and accessible of them were depleted.  Even wild game, once ever-present, could now be sparse and elusive., 

Then came the dawn of true automation, as mass production, transport, and communication all became practical within a few decades - changing the world beyond recognition.  The looting and pillaging of any society incapable of defending itself was now in full swing, but now economic enslavement had replaced most physical enslavement. Adding to the population boom, basic medical practices now doubled the percent of children that survived to adulthood.

Instead of owning people, the great powers simply owned everything they needed to exist.  Instead of invading nations, we made predatory loans and agreements.  And, because the average lifestyle of the population kept increasing with the massive expansion, they cheered it on and accepted that this was the way forward for humanity.  After all, wasn't life getting better for everyone?

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

But the shadows were looming, and everyone knew it.  Environmental problems were getting obvious, extinctions were getting obvious, deforestation, water supplies, and resource loss were all getting obvious.  Of course, those in power couldn't have that attitude take over, because all possible solutions would diminish their power.  So their next step was to sell us a dream.

It's a nice dream, and the best part of it is that there is no way to directly say it's impossible.  The dream is that technology will save us.

Certainly the selling points are there - birth control technology and the mass education of young women greatly reduced the population growth rate.  Emissions controls cleaned the worst of the air pollution and acid rain threat.  Mass industrial farming and GMO crops held the threat of global starvation at bay.  There were even signs that our basic energy production problems could be solved eventually.

All of this might have been possible - if human population wasn't already far into overshoot, and if humans didn't keep acting like humans.  But how can we expect what would have to happen, for us to remain stable long enough to give technology a chance?  For that to take place, we would have to give up the growth paradigm for long enough for technologies that don't even exist yet to be explored and adapted.  It would mean decades, maybe even a century, of people waiting in limbo - and those people would have to be sustained somehow through the transitional period, which would require a degree of wealth re-distribution never before contemplated.

It won't happen, of course.  Instead, we are seeing a global rise in corruption EVERYWHERE as people find ways to take what they need, or want, or feel they deserve.  Right now, everyone is having to work harder every year just to maintain what they have - and people are burning out.  Each burnout cascades, putting extra burdens on those who try to remain productive.

All that sustains us now is the insane level of productivity we now have due to automation at every level.  80% of human work now is useless, existing simply to move money around or arbitrate disputes - important things, yes, but they hold no productive value.  ALL lawyers, advertising, and  insurance work falls into this category, as does most of the financial industry.  A century ago, 80% of all jobs involved growing food and moving it around.

Now, everything depends on the actions of about 5% of the population - those who do the essential work feeding and powering and producing essential goods for everyone else.  Another 5% work at maintaining the infrastructure and equipment allowing them to do so, The rest of the useful few are in transport and various essential services. 

And it's exactly those essential people who are losing ground and burning out the fastest.

For now, our otherwise useless administrators are papering over the cracks and throwing imaginary money at the problems, while continuing to paint pretty pictures of the future via mass media.  They are doing an excellent job of it.  When things collapse, most of the population will be left wondering how and why it happened, and will be willing to quickly place the blame wherever the mass media directs.

But remember, ALL of that is a distraction.  The simple fact is that there are too many humans, and no way to change that in time to avoid global systemic collapse.