Well, you are right about the current state of civic organizations.
BUt the freemasons are OLD. The go back hundreds of years. And before tats the there were The Templars.
FReemasons do not have to disclose that they are freemasons. Many people are but they keep it secret.
Once you see the array of freemasonry symbols around Washington DC, you will understand their influence.
Grand Lodge of DC:
https://www.dcgrandlodge.org/history-of-dc-freemasonry.html
Their values are enshrined in the Constitution.
Some say that without the Freemasons, we would never have benn able to unify as a nation in the beginning.
National organized Freemasonry began in 1717 with the founding of the Grand Lodge—an association of Masonic lodges—in England. However, Freemason societies have existed for much longer. The most popular theory is that Freemasonry emerged out of the stonemasonry guilds of the Middle Ages
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Freemasonry