I just view it as a grifter-elite class of partyless opportunists. They see a dying country and like buzzards, seek to get the last scrap of meat on the bone they can. It’s why the Clinton’s will sell missile secrets to the CHiComs and uranium production to the Russians and manpads to the Libyans and/or Al Queda. It is nationless. It is the process of placing themselves in the flow of funds from point A to point B and working to divert what they view as their share. Propriety does not exist. There is no loyalty to a nation. That nonsense got washed away long ago. They believe themselves above the law and immune from prosecutorial reach. Largely, they are right.
Your description of these villains and brigands is spot on.