Re: "Is our civilization a bubble?"
The upshot is that in free societies the typical individual has more leverage and can demand more consideration than in those organized around command. Competition in productivity - however sharp its elbows may sometimes feel - tends to elevate the standing and dignity of the ordinary man and woman, enriching them as much in psychological as in material possession.
The driver IMO. This can be traced to early explorers to today's innovators. It can also spread to others psych from problem solving and the psychological rewards from it, leading to greater future production and new goals. Whether those goals take us to the dark side and end up busting the bubbles from internal greed or opposed intervention seems the natural psychological way things have been going for years.
Some want to go to the stars and some don't. How that plays out is interesting.