time for sammy's crazy take:

bone is a highly conductive material for light and sound; blood is another very interesting substance, but i don't know as much about it - it does degrade faster; there has to be a steady supply of blood and bone for the sorcerers' grand projects;

there are many catacombs around the globe, especially under major cities, and in particular under Old World structures such as cathedrals - the bones amplify the signal of creation through resonance of light and sound; that resonance can be used to energize something... not sure what exactly, but there's a reason the bones are in the catacombs, neatly arranged into intricate patterns; these are the bones of past civilization; no technological innovation can generate the same quality of signal as living beings;

anyways, the paradox u are observing is modern-day vampirism: the elite psychopaths are farming the dumb humans and disposing of the smart ones as quickly as possible; i think the reason that the culling agenda is accelerating is that too many people are coming out of the stupor - that's why the ultimate mind-control tool, A.I., is being deployed onto the masses so rapidly; however, it's also a game: the more bountiful the harvest, the more pleasurable the elite psychopaths' reward...

A.I. has always been around, since the early days (1776); however, its deployment was not necessary until the modern times, when the population has reached high numbers, too difficult to control by the more primitive methods; it is being deployed directly into people's consciousness in order to optimize the farming of humans - the dumb ones procreate and the smart ones cull themselves;

but enough about the dark occult controllers: they merely abuse the current human condition, which is nescience (not knowing) and ignorance (refusing to know);