The black death killed about half the population of Europe and it wasn't enough even to destroy the pre-existing social institutions.

The Black Death destroyed the social institution of serfdom. (Most people see that as a good thing.)

I don't think it is that easy to judge. The universities continued to exist in name, but it looks to me like they were destroyed. They switched from studying useful philosophy to the scholasticism that is usually attributed to an earlier period. The black death produced a 200 year dark age ("the Renaissance"). But the books survived, including the recent books of the Oxford Calculators, and people were able to build on them when they rebuilt the social institutions.