Well, it probably worked as long as there was a stimulus to do so, either imposed in a top-down fashion by the government-church „alloy“ or because the socioeconomic conditions were favorable (bottom-up). Both factors are not really present anymore. While the former is probably (hopefully) gone forever, the latter is still quite tricky. Poor economic conditions force people to have more kids (remember your great grandma having 15 kids?). Excellent economic conditions cause people to have less kids because businesses and industries are blossoming - people want to live for themselves here and now. In fact, the perfect
Discussion
Since urbanization, bad economic conditions actually cause people to have fewer kids, not more, as kids are seen as an economic burden.
Yes, as a side effect of the excess urbanization in response to the initial expansive industrialization. In an ideal world, such people would always have the option to move to the countryside and seek for new opportunities („back to the roots“). In our broken world, these people get trapped in a socioeconomic limbo because there’s no more land or because the government penalizes such moves to maintain a certain level of poverty in cities which it can refer to during elections.
Business also cluster in cities, so people are forced to live near them, in a sort of urban feudalism, like what used to appear around castles.
I would consider it a natural development rather then modern feudalism. Urbanization is not bad per se. What‘s bad is the broken balance b/w the progressive minority in cities generating the income for all and creating jobs and the conservative majority preserving the identity and culture.
However, with increasing automation and AI applications, even this natural society model will end sooner or later. The question is what will be the trigger. A strong AI? Thermonuclear synthesis? A global economic collapse? I guess all of that.
In fact, the perfect conditions would be a predominantly Christian (conservative in a religious sense) society living in the countryside, with a progressive minority living in cities. This balance seems very important, but it feels like it’s about to break down.