We used to live in a world where the price of resources CAME down steadily, and now the world has CHANGED. You have a great mismatch between FINITE resources and exponential POPULATION growth.
In a FILM, you only have a finite amount of time, and you're so concerned with SAYING what happened and making it a gripping SHORTSTORY with a satisfying ending.
The first attempt at a response: there MUST have been a fall, a decline, and the ROAD to SALVATION can only be the return of the sensible finite into the intelligible infinite.