We always where going to, a star trek like society benefits the maximum number of people at the expense of curtailing the excesses of the wealthiest people.

The wealthy people don't like that, why would they and since they have a disproportionate amount of power via their wealth they oppose it successfully.

They'll keep the bread and circuses going and keep refining what is the minimum amount of bread they can get away with until they cross the line and then things get whacky for a bit, it resets and then they start taking the bread away again.

Yep, just a delayed combination of the full cyberpunk genre.