I see this as just a symptom of ever increasing corruption & decadence of western civilization, maybe not necessarily intentional, just to avoid putting on a tin-foil hat, it is the result of humans just following human nature to be greedy. I would say that, despite the occasional improvements in "social justice", (for lack of a better term), politicians are increasingly in the pocket of big business (military-industrial complex, wall street, corporations able to fund millions into political campaigns, etc).  Then you have corrupt law enforcement (civil forfeiture, war on drugs, militarization of police, CIA/DEA having cocaine hooker parties & selling guns to cartels, overly powerful police unions, etc) & prison-industrial complex.... these things and overextending resources with near constant warfare (war on terror, war on drugs, war on christmas (joke) remind me a lot of the decline of the Roman Empire.    I might be wrong about this as I can't really call myself a historian, but there's no question that corporations are making huge bank off fat, lazy, & poor uneducated people.    Walmart was #1 on the Fortune 500 list in 2015... & where can we always be certain to find the most disgusting and egregious examples of fatty scum on FPH?  Walmart.