The stable periods of history are when there's a lot of chaos in new ideas.

If the underlying system is too chaotic, then there's no space to innovate; most requisite variety has to go into merely surviving.

When underlying systems are more stable:

If the containing system is too rigid, it can't hold itself together in the face of those chaotic new ideas.

The too-rigid system will either squelch the possibility of those combinations… or it will shatter.

If you have the bottom-up combinatorial chaotic swarming of new ideas, you need a flexible organization to absorb and grow from it.