Not only that, but the United States' shift in mindset toward disinvestment came about during the civil rights era. Not hard to read between the lines in e.g. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED050960.pdf :/
"The time has come to ask what level of population growth is good for the United States. There was a period when rapid growth made better sense as we sought to settle a continent and build a modern industrial Nation."
"[A] fundamental question about the Nation's future: Do we wish to continue to invest even more of our resources and those of much of the rest of the world in meeting demands for more services, more classrooms, more hospitals, and more housing as population continues to grow?"
"We have all heard about a population problem in the developing nations of Asia, Africa and Latin America, where death rates have dropped rapidly and populations have exploded. Only recently have we recognized that the United States may have population problems of its own. There are differing views. Some say that it is a problem of crisis proportions that the growth of population is responsible for pollution of our air and water, depletion of our natural resources, and a broad array of social ills."
I think the Club of Rome were the first major international policy group to take resource finitude seriously. Although I read a bit of their final report, and their projections were ridiculous and we've already blown well past them with no trouble at all.
"The time has come to ask what level of population growth is good for the United States. There was a period when rapid growth made better sense as we sought to settle a continent and build a modern industrial Nation."
"[A] fundamental question about the Nation's future: Do we wish to continue to invest even more of our resources and those of much of the rest of the world in meeting demands for more services, more classrooms, more hospitals, and more housing as population continues to grow?"
"We have all heard about a population problem in the developing nations of Asia, Africa and Latin America, where death rates have dropped rapidly and populations have exploded. Only recently have we recognized that the United States may have population problems of its own. There are differing views. Some say that it is a problem of crisis proportions that the growth of population is responsible for pollution of our air and water, depletion of our natural resources, and a broad array of social ills."
My favorite part is "Some say"[who?]