One thingne may question if this "trend to increase" is so natural or universal, or rather only apply to some periods, and some fields, especially the last cnturies (but - one may ask if it is not on the reverse in many fields, some of them mentioned earlier in this debate).
Take astronomy. I think "western"astronomy made some important advances in antiquity, especially perhaps 3.d century B.C. (You may argue over the term "western" here, since Alexandria, Egypt, was the center. But it was made by Greeks, regarded as some of the founders of the "west").But after that, when was the next big steps? I think that little happened before the 16.century, if we in this connection exclude very remote peoples, which have had little if any influence on modern science. And even then some of the most famous men "reinvented" ancient ideas (Copernicus and the heliocentric world view), which in fact happened in a lot of other fields of art and science. It was at least as much about reading ancient masters anew, as about making independent work.