Two capped hot wires in wall box
That's exactly how it would be left if someone removed the switch.   When the switch was there, the two blacks went to the switch, and the whites and grounds were spliced just like that and pushed into the back of the box.  

After removing the switch, if they wanted to emulate the switch being on, they would have spliced the blacks together.  If they wanted to emulate the switch being off, they'd do what they did.   

That may be because they removed the fixture and did not want hot going somewhere it did not need to be.