That being said, one harbinger of civilizational collapse is loss of belief in the religions that made the civilization possible. For us it is Christianity and to a smaller extent Judaism (nice to see Latin America is largely Christian, time to revive my Spanish). India has stuck to its Hindu roots. Same for Israel and Judaism.
Ok now look at China, the most athiestic country on the face of the planet. Does turning your back on Buddhism and Taoism sound like the road to prosperity? Does believing in Xi Jinping and his orbit of international billionaires sound like a good replacement for traditional values?
Could the Mayan god-emporers make the rains fall if enough hearts were sacrificed? No. Time will tell if the “elites” in China and the West can do what the Mayan god-rulers could not. If they can it will be a first in world history.
The answer to your rhetorical question is contained within your paragraph. It is this: in back of Mayan god-emperers were Powers and Principalities relishing the idea of being worshipped by humans. After the crucifixion of Christ and before coming back into the world, He punished Powers and Principalities and forbid them to ever again act as gods and goddesses.
In our own time, Powers and Principalities stand in back of Globalists, both East and West. Since they cannot be worshipped they've been unleashing catastrophe through a long line of human-tools such as Marx, Stalin, Lenin, Trotsky, Hitler, Mao, etc. The same will occur through Global 'elites.' and their national-level Ruling Class puppets.