Those complex solutions require more energy of every kind. Sometimes the marginal returns are still huge, but most of the time they're not as big as the previous ones. And the people who are paying those costs aren't seeing the same returns as they did earlier, or their parents or grandparents.
So it's costing more and more energy to implement the more and more complex solutions to fix problems. And if things actually work and continue to get solved, then you can keep going, because problems are being solved. But if they don't get solved, well that's a real problem.
Not every solution works of course. When costs and complexity are small, or there's more than enough energy to go around, you can deal with that. You can try something new because it doesn't cost much to try. But as things get more expensive, and there's not much spare energy, it's not so easy.
Now, you would rightly say, don't we have a shit ton of energy? Isn't the green energy and battery revolution finally undercutting carbon fuel? And you'd be right, except for the fact that the important thing is *available energy* and what is available can be limited by more than just nature.
Say you have a president, who along with his political party, think that non-carbon energy sources are evil, and they use every legal and illegal method to make using those forms of energy more expensive than the ones they think are good. You know, just like Trump and the Republicans have done.
And lets say that president just cuts off huge swatches of your economy. Imposes huge blanket tariffs, cuts off all money, which is a proxy for energy, to scientific and medical research into solving problems, sometimes in very complex ways. You know, like Trump and Musk and the DOGE boys just did.
Well then, what you get is a titanic drop off in the supply of available energy. Energy societies, like the US, need in order to implement the solution to problems. Even evil solutions like sending your own private Gestapo out illegally kidnapping and disappearing people..
Not only is the supply of energy to new solutions cut off, but so is the supply to the complex solutions you've already implemented. You know, like Medicaid, Medicare, rural hospitals and the like who are going to shortly be devastated but massive cuts.
Complex solutions like the world class weather forecasting that has saved lives and property in the face of global climate change that is being decimated by Trump, Musk, and the DOGE boys just shutting things down because they don't think they matter.
I'm sure you can think up similar examples. Well, what happens when that energy supply is cut off? Well, the budget needs to be cut, because there isn't energy to spend, and those complex solutions are the first thing to go, because they cost the most, and have the least marginal benefit.
And when problems don't seem to get fixed anymore, the society begins to fall apart, because, frankly, what the fuck is the point when that society isn't allowed to do anything. And as Tainter shows exhaustively, this can happen VERY FAST. Like what has happened here kind of fast.