The supremacy of advertising is also a very small example of the much larger picture of the entire western economy degenerating from something that made actual

The supremacy of advertising is also a very small example of the much larger picture of the entire western economy degenerating from something that made actual stuff[0] into a zero-sum game that leeches economic value from productive purposes and transfers it to non-productive middlemen who do nothing other than enrich themselves. The other big example of this problem is the massive overgrowth of the FIRE sector, which has largely eaten the US economy whole while accomplishing nothing other than its own enrichment. [0] For the purposes of this argument, 'actual stuff' does apply to intangible goods, like software, that expands the production possibilities curve.