Actually, they have not gone nuts. What they are doing is calculated, intentional, and well thought-out. The world is now run by a loose superclass of political and bureaucratic elites who have never worked an honest day in their lives.
It's the modern-day equivalent of medieval royalty, and what they are doing now is a brilliant capitalization on an intentionally-manufactured economic downtown to cement their power by making us, their peasants, ever more dependent on the crumbs they throw to to us.