'Managed Decline' is a mechanism the engine describes for reducing the resource footprint of the ordinary population.
It is not collapse but a controlled, deliberate reduction.
It works as a planned 'load shedding' of the energy and resource use of the general public — a built-in split, or bifurcation, in how much different groups get to consume.
It reframes apparent decline as something managed on purpose rather than an accident, dividing who keeps their footprint and who has it cut.