Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution we have been left pretty much alone to regulate our own social evolution. We have multiplied like rats in the interim, thanks to advances in medicine, agricultural techniques, and a more leisurely lifestyle. This was a boon for Western civilization, and humanity in general. It was unfolding during a time when thinking machines were found only in the pages of science fiction stories.
There was no need for robot labor because there were more than enough people around to do any job required. There weren't as many fast food joints around so people had to do other forms of physical work. Of course, this was when real jobs actually existed in this country, before they were shipped elsewhere to satisfy CEO and shareholder greed. Nowadays college grads are lucky if they can get a job managing the corner McDonald's.
With the advent of nuclear weapons, the handlers who run the show behind the scenes have been hard put to offer anything even remotely close to a pandemic of any consequence that would thin out the population sufficiently to meet their needs. Big wars in the past served this purpose while making huge profits for corporations. Not anymore. This isn't to say they haven't tried using other means; they have, with pathetic results. The last natural pandemic was the Spanish Flu of 1918. There have been some lame man made attempts since then, but nothing to match what Mother Nature (or aliens) have done so efficiently in the past.
We have painted ourselves into a corner. Though it would be easy to feed and cloth the entire population of the planet, it would go against the current state of what human nature has been molded into, and against the very selfish precepts of the corporate rich in all its guises. Just to illustrate this, what do you think would happen if Tesla-like energy technology were let loose on the world? The ripple effect would be like a sudden rain in a drought ridden desert. Couple that with a rethinking of religious concepts and civilization as we know it would be transformed into something unimaginable to our present state of mind.
Because of the stronghold tptb have on us, this is not going to happen, not if they can help it. Instead, a mass die-off is in order, of the sort mother nature was so good at performing before we learned how to override her intentions. It would have to be big enough to maintain their power hold while at the same time easing social tensions enough so that things flow more easily with less global anxiety. I don't want to speculate how this die-off is to be enacted. But you can lay odds that they have something up their sleeves. They also realize that their time is running out, so you can expect more drastic (and clumsy) measures to be taken.