Thats because the quantum leaps in technology keep getting stolen and contained.
All that shit, all of it, from sci-fi in the 1920s+ about how we'd be living like the Jetsons in the 1960s or 2000s was correct.
At least based on the actual progression that things were going. Even the wars wouldnt have slowed this down, and Hitler had advanced tech of his own (not just the Nazi Bell, but also the Disks, which would just make bombers fall out of the air if they got close to them, due to Information Warfare energy fields they emitted)
All Tech since 1946+ has been Spoon Fed.
Moore's Law for example isnt a progression but a plan, that way nobody comes out with fuck-off levels of computer tech out of the blue (we have Optical Processors now, look it up, but its just not going anywhere? wonder why).
This is immensely absurd.
Overpopulation doesn't mean shit when you're building cities out on the ocean filled with Hydrogenated Aerogel insulation (which is literally lighter than air)... and farming your crops in automated underwater capsules.
If you even need to farm... since Matter Recombiners could take raw materials and 3d print them at the molecular level into whatever fucking food we need.
You're thinking 2 dimensionally here.
They dont give a shit about the money or the gold. Its a Tool to leverage power. If they control Trillions of bucks worth of assets and can move it overseas at the push of a button, they can hold your economy hostage. Which they do.
And being in control of the corporations means they're the boss, regarding what those corps do. And they can buy up individual assets and innovation and keep it to themselves.
Its greed for Power, not money.
Once the existing system is gone, they just have de-facto power like a Medieval King. And they dont need the money to use as leverage anymore, they just have their cronies enforce their directives.