Complexity-Induced Decline?

According to a Dinocrat commenter, we're experiencing "how complex and elderly social systems decay and collapse."

I've been meaning to read Joseph Tainter's archeological study of that process. Cf. Glenn Reynolds:

The bailout bill -- once three pages long -- is now the length of a novel and larded with "sweeteners."

Supposedly innovation can counteract complexity-based decline. Unfortunately, much contemporary innovation involves the deliberate fabrication or manipulation of complexity to the overall detriment of society.