For a remedy to this flavour of pessimism I'd suggest you read Bregman's Humankind[1].
tldr; the current level of exploiting each other doesn't come naturally for people.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humankind:_A_Hopeful_History
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humankind:_A_Hopeful_History
Agreed, it doesn't. Nothing about that fact seems reason for optimism, however. It's a gigantic leap to go from "the current level of exploiting each other doesn't come naturally for people" to "that level is going to decrease, or stop rising, any time soon".
But don’t mistake “natural” with “good”. Actually that is much more natural (in a wild sense) than having a complex society full of moral and philosophical constraints. I myself believe very strongly in ethics and try to be ethical as much as I can, but that doesn’t mean ethical behaviour comes “naturally”. If you can’t accept that not everyone will be ethical, and some will act “savagely”, then you’re being naive and opening yourself to, well, opportunities of exploitation.
Edit - you know what, after a bit of reading, I do get the point being made. Thanks for the book reference, I’m going to place a hold at my library if they have it.