I think that's a bit reductionist. Highly recommend reading the Muqaddimah (one of the first sociology books) which talks of a natural cadence to power: http://www.politics.ankara.edu.tr/dergi/pdf/39/1/13_barbara_...

Nietzsche also delves into some of these ideas when he describes the rise and fall of civilizations as a by product of decadence. This decadence is not just the simplistic notion of "consumption", but rather a weak moral system that arises as a result of decadence. It is not consumption, but rather the morality of consumption: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/5avje6/what_...

Looting machines (like companies) required skill, fearlessness, and capital to build.