"They" and "these people" can be a reference to some shadowy unnamed cabal. But it can just as easily be a clumsy shorthand for a disorganized preponderance of

"They" and "these people" can be a reference to some shadowy unnamed cabal. But it can just as easily be a clumsy shorthand for a disorganized preponderance of authoritative institutions and individual actors whose interests are aligned and mutually reinforcing in such a manner as to move society along a particular trajectory which is considered undesirable by the interlocutor. There's no good ready-made term for that which can't also be taken to imply deliberate centrally managed coordination, unfortunately.