Yes. And they know protecting themselves means destroying lives of billions so they need to make sure the billions won’t go after them. And since the masses are also aware of the situation it means at least short-term planning against the people. This requires at least basic coordination between interest groups and gradual capturing of whatever means of power are still left for the masses. Then they figure out how easy it is to wield even more power and off we go to the land of the tin foil headwear.