When societies become unable to sustain very high rates of growth the domestic niche narrows and that society begins to agonise about matters of political economy, the distribution of the wealth which is extant in that society. England in the 1880s is a good case.
The West today generally seems to be in this position, with those contract-shifted states (US, UK) worse affected than those that are relatively speaking status-shifted (Germany, Japan).
In contrast, countries with high rates of growth are outward looking; the domestic niche is expanding, partly through the incorporation of further external niches. Suspension of interest in political economy is the result but it is replaced by intense awareness of external competitors. England in the period 1700 to 1850 is a perfect historical example, and China is the contemporary specimen.