but then one would expect how to build these things so the ones coming after would become bigger/better etc. However this is not the case
That is a big assumption. What if they did not want to do so? Perhaps there was a lack of resources at later builds
I think Ravi's on the right lines.
Maybe later pharaohs didn't have sufficient prestige or social control to motivate / compel large numbers of healthy people to build enormous structures. Maybe there were other priorities- perhaps a need for more farmers and irrigation channel diggers, or soldiers, limited the numbers available for pyramid building. Maybe the later pharaohs preferred the people to "donate" the results of their labours to them during their lifetimes.
Wikipedia, "Ancient Egypt", sub-heading "Old Kingdom 2686-2181 BC" (accessed 05/04/23) says this:
Kings also made land grants to their mortuary cults and local
temples, to ensure that these institutions had the resources to worship the king after his death. Scholars believe that five centuries of these practices slowly eroded the economic vitality of Egypt, and that the economy could no longer afford to support a large centralized administration.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egypt
There are lots of analogous trends. The "classic" Roman soldier of the 1st century, with his lorica segmentata armour and large rectangular shield, looked smarter and more "uniform" than the more simply-equipped Roman soldier of the 4th century.
The great Gothic cathedrals of western Europe remain among the largest and most elaborate churches, even though construction techniques have improved and the countries they're in became much richer (and the people were largely "observant" churchgoers, until the 19th century at least).
No-one's built a supersonic airliner since the 1970's!
I guess some arts aficionados would claim that the late baroque and classical music between 1700-1830 hasn't been surpassed.
Some examples of the scaling-down of "prestige" projects, or material signs of power and wealth, are associated with decline (economic and/ or military) of the state/ culture involved, or insecurity within that society.
But many others are arguably just the result of gradual cultural change; e.g. the governments of France and Britain could conceivably decide to build a new supersonic airliner (if only a safer, modernised Concorde, benefitting from digital technology and better materials science). But large numbers of people in both countries might say, "Hey! You're spending my taxes on
that? Which I can't afford to fly on? With those emissions? What about my local schools / hospital [etc. etc.]" -because many people might be more aware of government spending decisions, and are less deferential, than their grandparents were.
The pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure were maybe all built within 60 years (2570-2510 BC). Some of the limestone 'facing' blocks remain at the foot of Menkaure's pyramid are unfinished- construction stopped, not long before completion, possibly because of Menkaure's death. His successor Shepseskaf was interred in a mastaba, a large brick structure.
There are theories why he didn't have a pyramid:
(1) The mastaba was going to be a pyramid, or a pyramid was planned, but Shepseskaf died before work was underway.
(2) Shepseskaf's origins didn't give him the status that a pyramid would indicate.
(3) Shepseskaf didn't want a pyramid, as pyramids were associated with the priesthood's solar cult- a politico-religious choice.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepseskaf Wikipedia, "Shepseskaf", accessed 04/04/23.
The much later pharaohs Akhenaten and Tutankhamen (reigning in the period roughly between 1353-1323BC) didn't have pyramids, funerary practices had changed. The last recognisable Egyptian pyramid was finished about 1700 BC.
We know the pyramid builders were not slaves, and probably worked seasonally. Many would have been, or became, skilled stonemasons. A pharaoh would need such a workforce to be motivated over several years. It's hard to see how such men- in their thousands- could be compelled to work; they were strong, and timber props and bronze tools for cleaving or dressing stone could be used to improvise weapons.
Perhaps the cost of rewarding the builders (and having them away from other activities, like farming) became unsupportable. Or maybe Egyptians became less devoted to their rulers, or less tied to the religious tradition that had supported pyramid building, and were less willing to supply their labour year after year.
