I see what you're saying. That's almost always the case. Whenever you get big enough to have an influence, the Epsteins of the world start courting you. If you aren't interested in joining the club, you get replaced one way or another.

Global covert influence operations are almost certainly the reason why most politicians, media, and social figures in the west appear to think with the same mind and have no loyalty to the people they represent or influence. It's why police and politicians appear to protect grooming gangs in Europe, and why migrant crimes are brushed under the rug. They do what they're told or they become a target for people nobody is willing to stop.

The entire system has been corrupted because they own the plurality of media, tech, entertainment, watchdogs, senior law enforcement and alphabet boys, fact checkers, prosecutors and judges. It's basically lobbying, if the Mafia were called lobbyists and they had universal state-backed power and infinite resources. Anyone who has a large influence on society is going to be flipped or kicked.