i agree with you in basic terms

The problem, at least as I see it, is that ‘reduced/downsized groups will still have a knowledge of what was, and thus what could be.

Those groups will be in a state of denial as to their predicament, and human nature being what it is, will be ready to blame everyone and everything for their circumstances, and not be prepared to accept any kind of ‘new reality’.

500 years ago we had a cultural dna which would have kicked in to allow survival at a basic level; now I think we have lost that.

My ggggrandfather could likely have supported himself from the land, I most certainly could not