I wasn’t born yet, but I have often thought that the 1970s must have been a time when it was a lot more possible to hope that we might voluntarily change our economic system to make it not depend on constant growth.

Now, the only thing I see happening is each successive iteration of the ruling class plundering everything we have and absconding with the riches, leaving any problems for their successors to deal with (usually by ignoring them, or by saying things like, “whoops! there went Social Security! You’re on your own, suckers!”)