Star WARS
The technology actually gets worse as as you move forward from era to era.. It's generally contributed to long drawn out wars that bring an empire crashing down and many of its advancements with it. The ideas remain so societies rebuilds each time with what is essentially the war torn left overs of the last super power and new ideas. Technology peaks as the wars climax and then society crumbles. In the later eras it gets real bad. Rebellion, New Republic, NJO, and then Legacy, they all happen fro 0 aby-40 aby and by Legacy every things a piece of ****.
The rule of two really kills a game set after ROTJ unless you go all the way into Legacy era.
But Sith Era (when SWTOR takes place) is by far the longest and least documented Era, so they had the most freedom in this era.