The great game

I'd be hesitant to this is coordinated but a by product of the system we've created. Here are a few things that I think ended up with us in this situation.

A) People are lazy and competition is hard and comes with risk, it's in the powerful's best interest to make it difficult to compete with them. I know for sure regulations are used to make it expensive to compete and to maintain a barrier of entry high, there are probably other things in this category I'm unaware of.
B) Monopolies are everywhere and we keep letting corporations get larger and larger. This is really apparent in giant conglomerates owning media companies where it creates a bias towards hiring people who are pliable and will spout any any message so long as they get a pay cheque. I can't imagine anyone with any backbone lasts long in the MSM.
C) So much of our tax dollars come from such a small group of people that our government is almost forced to prioritize them.
D) Immigration is a tool to limit inflation by artificially keeping wages low. By always ensuring there is a large pool of workers at the bottom the cost per hour of those people never really has to rise which in turn keeps helps keep wages lower of the people above them.

The issue is things like environmental regulations and taxing the rich are such easy sells to liberals that they don't think about what they're missing out on. I don't think this could happen if the population wasn't ignorant which you could try to pin on the MSM but it really comes down to individual choices :/ Another theory I have is that entertainment is just too good, and most people would rather be entertained then face the difficulty of thinking.