The Great Divide

What if those Space Gods we were all supposedly waiting for had turned out to be so far in advance of even our wildest technological expectations that they found a way to wipe themselves out so completely as to leave virtually no trace of their ever having existed? Wouldn't the universe look pretty much as it does now, or would 'virtually no trace' allow for just enough of a clue to get us on the road to making the same mistakes, at least eventually? If yes, it might explain how cheap car insurance became so essential to the lives of one small tribe living on the opposite edge of the galaxy, or how humanity effected first contact with the alien Heshen Composite by means of toilet humour, or any number of details of futurity which would probably seem ridiculous to anyone who wasn't there, or rather won't be there.