[throwawaay94904]

>There seems to be a dogma that the population must grow, and any sign that it might stop growing at some point is bad.

Well, when you have most nations in the world making Keynesian policies that assume future economic growth (China included), then yes it's a bad thing. In that case, you're left with an ageing population who previously planned for their retirement investments to carry them, but instead must rely on government services funded by a much smaller, younger working population.