I fully agree with this. They made the mistake of building their pens too hostile for breeding so that their population would be weakened, demoralized and carefully culled, but their replacement is just as vulnerable to the same conditions, and failed to create their own in-tribe caste of qualified personnel to keep things running.
AI and robots are more productive than humans yes but they consume immense amounts of energy on a neglected, continent-spanning grid that's one brick-with-wire away from becoming fireworks and could only be hardened at monumental cost by the same guys they tried to cull.
It's a failed experiment, so some of their smarter felons are just jumping ship well before it falls apart.
