I don’t think this is such a novel phenomenon. Dystopian fiction has been around for at least a century and consistently growing in popularity. The only thing new is that we are seeing it more often on television nowadays.
I don’t think this is so much a symptom of some elites trying to “groom” us as it is a subconscious expression of peoples’ reaction to the modern world and fears about the direction it is heading. You can see this by looking at what the main elements of the dystopia are in each era. Around WWII, the main dystopian scenario was a fascist or authoritarian government. During the Cold War, post-nuclear apocalyptic scenarios were common. After the oil crisis in the 70s, we saw dystopias focused on society running out of natural resources. Nowadays, in the “climate change” paranoia era, it is common to see dystopias caused by some environmental catastrophe.
These are simply a new form of myths or fairy tales that we construct, where the dystopia takes the place of the mythical monster as the antagonist. Whatever the current fears lurking in the minds of our society, that is the form that the monster will reflect. This happens in non-Western societies as well, as you can see Japan’s post WWI fears about the consequences of the atomic bombs dropped on them expressed in their nuclear-powered Godzilla monster movies. We humans just tend to take our fears and put them into our creative works, perhaps as a way of confronting them and getting some catharsis.
Very well put and true.