[toasterlovin]

You have to be insane to think that a 50% population reduction would have no significant impact on societal arrangements.

Life up until the industrial revolution was dominated by a single factor: the Malthusian limit. The Black Death obliterated that constraint. And, since it reoccurred every 10-15 years, it continued to make the Malthusian limit a non-issue for a long, long time.