My Plot Guess
I haven't read any books and I'm just starting season 3. During season 2 finale I got a brainwave about what might be happening. I think the bunker residents might be test bunnies, observed by AI. The bunkers were built for bug outs in case of nuclear war and the people are test subjects to see which silo works so the people above ground know what works. I think in case of war above ground the "failsafe" would be used to wipe out the most successful bunkers for Americans to use and emulate what they did to survive. I think there were 51 trials, not all of them worked. Blind idea just wanna put it out there.