I've had a running theory that those in power want to return to vassal states. They don't care what happens to others, they want to be in charge. The only way that's possible is if the general population can't do things. With all of the technology and movement, most of those powerful things are dropping in value.

I thought about it years ago when I was eating dinner with a fairly well to do guy, who talked about how much he was helping. He complained that the poor didn't have access to groceries like he did. I pointed out most people could buy stuff at any grocery store, which was full of food. He countered that he meant the good stuff. He literally compared his power to shopping at a high end grocery store, where the food wasn't any better, and even worse. It wasn't that the food was better, it was that it was more expensive and thus gave him more power to buy it.

Since then I've met people who can't help to tell me how they made connections -the real money to the upper class- and got things accomplished. I point out my connections on various social media like Facebook. Heck, sometimes I know the same folks.

They don't care about money, that's not how they get things done. They care about their status and connections. If the plebes can do all of that, then they have no actual status to use.

All of this looks like their attempts to game the system before it falls apart on them. Every status symbol of experts, media control, and trick is them trying to create a vassal state.