Is this a Cartel/CIA operation?
No, it is much older. Some believe it actually began in the Akkadian empire. They needed an intel operation to run conquered lands, and it eventually discovered it was easier to let the people think they were in control, and just plant compromised leaders you own over them than to subjugate them. And since then it has been a sort of stateless shadow government moving in and out of different lands and organizations. It may have collapsed Rome purposely as it began to get discovered, and slipped into the Vatican. It crowned Kings, and when we won the Revolution, it used the Kings old spy networks, which we left in place to begin to subvert our nation. It flooded them money, made the rich and high status, had them run for office, and then they made us a nation of immigrants, from all the lands it controlled in Europe. Its assets entered freely and we welcomed them, and they operated as a sort of secret society among us, raising each other up, loyal to their conspiracy before our country. Aided by cash infusions from overseas, the chosen among them rose to office, and after over 200 years, it is now pretty much in full control, its surveillance is even in the schools clocking children, and it is beginning to bring in even more assets from other nations.
We are in bad straits, against an intelligence operation, when most citizens have no idea how intel ops work.
Kind of like ‘the invisible hand’ of power... makes sense.