All the time reading this discussion I was thinking about Parkinson. What if overgrown beaurocracies created a system that protects their existence? Self organized megabeurocratic society?
Another thought: the resistance to any corporate software that would considerably increase efficiency is explained by selfpreservation of the system.
3d printing guns might be bad news for opressive regimes. I grew up under one, remember all the measures to regulate the use of xerox copy machines. A book was an enemy of the regime. Imagine guns instead. Now, where to get enough amunition?