The individuals installed by the Derp State are there to preserve the corrupt system as is. Anyone who tries to change it (see Trump) is destroyed. Red China is awaiting our collapse (which they’re helping to fund) to swoop in, assuming Zelensky doesn’t trigger WW3 before that happens, and then everything won’t particularly matter.
The individuals in question really are those strivers who have gotten to the top within their subculture. This is not a tightly organised system.
That any given character is in charge of a government department, private company, investment house or whatever it may be, is a matter of the pool of persons the pool itself determines to be “worthy”. This is a sociological phenomenon, not a conspiracy.
Consider how ant colonies work. There is no mastermind ant.
Codevilla is your man on this. If you like you can look up Gramsci’s (Gramsci is the most useful commie ever) idea of hegemony.