Anthropologists have just recently discovered how devastating Aztec society was to their own members, it seems like nobody was safe from the "wrath of the gods."
As most know, the Aztec society crumbled because of colonial subjugation and European diseases that were untreatable with the resources that were available. The Aztec civilization was the last of the tribe-based society, and when the conquistadores came to conquer the land in Mexico, the Aztec society did not survive modernization.
Although there are plenty of semi-morbid academic reasons the Aztecs didn't stand the test of time, more recent research shows that massive amounts of human sacrifices did not help the Aztec society stand.
In fact, it seems that roughly 40% of Aztec society was sacrificed annually, towards the end of their existence as a tribe.
Historians have always been skeptical of the Spanish-recorded history of the Aztec society. Particularly, historians were confused about the Spanish accounts of human sacrifice rituals.
These European settlers portrayed the Aztec society as savage, hedonistic beasts with a disorganized government and terrible living conditions that regularly sacrificed massive amounts of members of their society.
While the latter is true, human sacrifice was a huge part of Aztec society, and their way of life was far from uncivilized.
However, the sheer magnitude of the amounts of human sacrifices that the Aztecs committed drove the nail into the coffin for European settlers. When the Spanish conquistadores tried to force Christianity onto the Aztec people, there was a mass ritualistic sacrifice boom. This was right when the finalized Aztec structure, Templo Mayor, had concluded its construction. This was likely in retaliation to the forced assimilation by the Spanish conquistadores, and the Aztecs died off completely shortly afterward.