The country has been heavily banking on discouraging the rank-and-file class from having children, and replacing them through immigration. And the ones that are already in the system are very heavily discouraged against the path to independent success and self-esteem. So the recent events are just another step in the same direction.

P.S. I don't think it's a carefully engineered master plan to eliminate independent thinkers, but rather what the society converges into when you eliminate the need for regular people to solve the problems on a daily basis. Medieval feudalism over again.