You are looking for a Great Man of history to pin this on. You’d rather believe someone nefarious is in charge and pulling the strings from an ocean away, than to see this for what it is; an empire with no real conscious oversight.

No, I just prefer to have realization of all of the components.

A pile of self-interested businessmen, politicians, and militarists doing whatever they can to line their pockets, profits above all else.

Agreed.

The US has, per capita, the largest prison population and, outright, the biggest military on the planet. If there’s a road to ‘unfreedom’, we traveled down it a long time ago.

Also agreed. As I said before, we were on this path, many made it worse. Putin put it on steroids.