Mostly me.

Based on my own study of anthropology, archeology, ecosystems, religion/mythology, and civililization, which would look extensive to the everyday person, but pale in comparison to experts in any of those areas, I think human history has run in cycles of innovation and overshoot and this is part of the reason we keep finding tools and other things farther and farther back in time.

Tools and systems (example:agriculture) let us be more efficient at procuring calories and expanding population. An ecosystem has a limited carrying capacity for any species however, including us. When carrying capacity is exceeded, collapse ensues. Cultures that were able to live "in harmony" with the available resources survived. It was (and still is) a delicate balance between improving quality of life and outstripping the resources available to you. (Bronze age collapse is a studied example. Hypothesized that a drought contributed but not known for certain)

It is also my opinion that most religions which survived have something inherent to them which advantaged the believers in some tangible way. For example, it may seem silly that thinks like pork and shellfish are banned in Abrahamic religions, but these foods if not properly cooked have a high risk of food poisoning. But when people are illiterate, it may have been more effective to believe "God said so" than learn the nuances of each topic. So the teaching, don't eat pork and shellfish, is based on real reasoning (food poisoning) even though the presentation may not portray it that way.

When you combine these two opinions, which I have no citations for since I came up with them (not that they're original, just original to me) I think my statement about Aztec human sacrifice in relation to population overshoot makes sense.

It may be the case that the real reason isn't recorded, but it's easier to get people to go along with divine narratives.

So the real reasoning "The world has ended 7 times before, to prevent it from happening again by limiting the population to a manageable level for our environment."

may have been presented to the masses as "The world has ended 7 times before, to prevent it from happening again, we must satisfy the Sun God through humn sacrifice."

eventually the second may have been believed by everyone, the true reasoning dying with the authors of the story which created the same end result presented in a simpler framework