Tangentially reminds me of this video by Jonathan Blow [0], "Preventing the Collapse of Civilization". The eye-opening moment, for me, was the importance (and neglect) of the inter-generational transfer of knowledge in maintaining technological complexity.
Not an exact reply to your comment/that video, but I think this dovetails well with it. Burke's "Connections" (1978) from the BBC is an interesting look at how technology has been developed and built on itself over time.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSRHeXYDLko