Mark Twain's novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is fairly relevant to this topic, and it's a good read either way.

In the book, Twainy boy called out contemporary society for depending too heavily on the machines/technology everyone went nuts for.

And if you know the story, things all come to a crashing end in Camelot, symbolic of OUR society. And this was the late 1800s.

Things eventually come to a head. It's only a matter of time, and really, how the people use their power. ~