I think very few people in "the powers that be" realise what's going on - just like "Francis and Maurice" in the frog cartoon above. "The powers that be" are not evil at individual level - it's just people, like you and me, with qualities and character flaws mostly like anybody else (maybe there's to some extent a selection bias). What's under threat here is the system, and the system is blind and oblivious. Whether those who benefit most will come out to defend it, when and how they'll try to defend it remains to be seen.