Until humankind came in contact with the Amnion, it was easy to believe that guttergangs would eventually rule the Earth.
In one sense, their roots were old as crime. "The poor you have with you always," said Christ, not inaptly. However, he might have gone on to observe that poverty had no meaning in the absence of wealth: where all have nothing, all are equal--and none poor. From the moment when human evolution first stumbled on the concept of having, some individuals or tribes or people had more while others had less. Predictably the disparity bred tension. In due course that tension led to violence--the taking away from those who had by those who had not.
As in all human endeavor, concerted action proved more effective than individual effort: groups could take more.
Gangs of one kind or another became inevitable as soon as having was invented.
In another sense, however, guttergangs were more recent. They were a product of modern mechanization and urbanization. More specifically, they were a symptom of as well as a reaction against the slow collapse of Earth's social infrastructures.
Because the services of well-meaning but overtaxed communities could no longer feed or care for their young adequately; because educational systems tried harder to control than to excite their students; because transitional lifestyles and intense technological changes eroded the ability of families to provide stability for their children; because humankind's rush to exploit the planet and consume its resources led to a rising tide of poverty which no one could stem; because the fiscal policies of governments were designed primarily to defend the comfort of the few against the hunger of the many; and because, finally, no one could pay for enough police to combat crime: for all these reasons and more, guttergangs flourished throughout Earth's sprawling urban structures with a vigor unprecedented in human history.
The gangs were starving, loveless, abused, despised, cornered: therefore they fought back. And they were able to fight back successfully because they wrested their survival from the same crumbling infrastructure which had created the conditions for their existence--there by, of course hastening the decline of that infrastructure; worsening the state of people who loved within rather than against Earth's social compacts; encouraging the growth of more guttergangs.
Weath was accumulated at the top of society, and people lost jobs due to technological advancements, and no one seemed to care until the poorer people all banded together. They became parasites as part of the guttergangs; acting out from an inner well of selfishness and rapacity. But parasites normally starve when their host dies, yet the guttergangs were too welded into society to be removed by anything less than a cataclysmic event or utter tyranny.
The invention and application of the gap drive actually bolstered the guttergangs, because it brought to Earth new resources from previously-unexplored space. This shored up infrastructure and thus gave the guttergangs more upon which to survive and thrive. No wonder it seemed likely to many societal observers that guttergangs would eventually rule the Earth.