The true problem started with the promise of western lifestyle with a planet that can not support such a lifestyle, and it cant be taken back. And due to the assymetric destabilizing effects of advanced technology, we can not science our way out of this trap. So, we walk the middle road, augmenting society to better the angles of our nature with panopticons etc. while the planet still can carry us.
Planet could have easily supported this lifestyle for everyone on the planet in 50s but everyone else but developed nations started a mass reproduction race where population didn't just double but increased tenfold.
