Decades ago, when I first read the story, it seemed rather dull and kinda outdated. Now, I`d call it prophetic. The Machine we have is different, a tad, but it is grinding to a halt. And of course we refuse to believe that. Anyway, the only major difference is most of us do not live underground, and therefore there are no holes for us to crawl to the surface trying to escape, even if we wanted to, which we don`t.
Funny how unfunny old texts turn funny over time...