See Tainter's work on the collapse of complex systems, and watch this nice video from B. Sid Smith. [0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WPB2u8EzL8

See also Donella Meadows (Limits to Growth) on sustainable systems.[0] News of the book's debunking was greatly exaggerated[1] of course.

Drink every time you hear "and notice how on the graph, everything looks great right before the end!"

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhSpzQhvFS8

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/02/limits...