So I had been playing Skyrim again for the past month and everytime I go into the Dwemer ruins, one question keeps coming up: why the hell are there so many lethal traps in hallways and even social quarters? I can understand putting them near the top-level to defend themselves from potential invasions by early Nords or Snow Elves, but why does a staircase have moving rotary hack saws?

If I recall, they've always had a sort of obsession with traps and the like.

I think that as far as the games go this is more of a case of gameplay and story segregation.

Or perhaps, because the Dwemer all vanished, their underground strongholds would go into a sort of lockdown and activate these security measures as a safety feature.