> How does your "wrinkle" make things necessarily worse? If a small number of causes continued to be responsible for a large fraction of all deaths even as cau

> How does your "wrinkle" make things necessarily worse? If a small number of causes continued to be responsible for a large fraction of all deaths even as causes were defeated/delayed by medical interventions, then a continuous application of research resources could plausibly lead to consistent increases in life expectancy. For instance, if as heart disease deaths are being reduced by endovascular procedures those people are dying mostly of colon cancer, then we could divert resources to colon cancer research and hope for continued progress. But if, once the major diseases are suppressed, the number of causes of death explodes into a diverse spectrum of unique illnesses, there is little hope that constant (or reasonably increasing) resources can do much.