"The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy." Or adapting to productivity gains, the productivity required is increasing to me

"The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy." Or adapting to productivity gains, the productivity required is increasing to meet the needs of increasingly productive people. So taking into account human nature might mean that productivity gains enable us to do more advanced work, not to work less. But like you said, we're all just speculating.