I suspect this could fit into the updated Darwin theories that take survival of the fittest to a genetic level. If you think about humans as simply natural organisms rather than beings given divine mandate over the universe then, like a virus has branches that burn out due to their incompatibility with reality so to will the human race.
If that's right, then this is a correction. Humanity has grown leaps and bounds. However, growth is not always linear. This could be the accelerated last gasp of a fading lineage.