It’s hard to compound in a negative direction for too long, no? People see a compounded value for a short period of time and say “that’s not the direction we want to go, let’s course correct”.
It’s quite easy when the effects are small at first and the changes occur over decades. People just get used to the smaller changes or were not alive to experience the earlier state. Only when things become so unstable that any minor change can have extreme consequences do people start to notice.