The idea of almighty machine which controls the humanity reminds me of the “Matrix”, with one difference, in matrix people are not aware that they live inside the simulation.
Even though, I personally like the concept, I feel like that “ The Machine stops” does not provide enough information about the world, how people damaged the planet so bad, that they had to live underground, and more importantly, why they created a machine powerful enough to sustain all its inhabitants, to provide them with clean water and oxygen, yet not powerful enough to safe the planet. What do I mean by save the planet is cleaning the water from the waste, filter the air, improve the soil quality.
I have an answer to my own question, in a way. The experiment with monkeys, ladder and bananas. 5 monkeys were placed into a cage. In a cage there was only a ladder above which the banana were hanging. The is no other way to reach the bananas except for using a ladder. The stronger monkey got onto it first, but when it was about to grab the fruit, cold water started shooting at all of the monkeys. It repeated again, and again, until the monkeys gave up.
Then, one monkey was replaced with another, who had no idea that water would activate, so when it tried to climb the ladder, other monkeys would attack it. The scientist then replaced another monkey, and another, until the whole original set of monkeys were gone. What was left is a new set of monkeys, scared to climb the ladder, and having no idea why.
Those people might have created the machine to protect them, until it does its job. The machine however understood that once it’s done, there would be no longer need for it, so it kept the people inside, scared, until eventually they were too scared about even thinking to go on ground. However, this is just my assumption.