GenZedong

At this level they are not competitors anymore, they are good friends with each other - including in politics. It's how capitalism progresses as it asserts itself as the hegemonic mode of production. All the talks of "if this law gets passed it'll be bad for business and I might just move my company" is exactly just talk; by the time the law is even publicized to the public these guys have already been told all about it and ran the numbers and simulations and know exactly how they're coming out of it. Shadowy elites, though, that depends. I mean, they're pretty blatant about it. We know who they are -- Bill Gates Elon Musk etc. The shadowy part might be that they keep up the appearances in front of the cameras (so to speak) but behind it they all know each other intimately.

There's an old joke that after convicting the accused, the judge, the prosecutor and the attorney all go grab drinks together.

I would say it's less shadowy cabal and more of a hiding in plain sight gangster empire thing because there's nothing in place to hold them accountable and won't be in many parts of the world so long as empire is in charge, and to a lesser degree, so long as capitalism is in charge. For contrast, consider the kind of headline that comes out of China along the lines of "person in government position greatly abused it to enrich themself and gets life sentence, or death penalty if they re-offend within X amount of time." That kind of thing simply doesn't happen with major financial crimes in capitalist states. The most that ever happens is a rogue person who breaks financial laws might get held accountable with a prison sentence once in a blue moon.

If we extend that to other types of crimes, it's no wonder this kind of thing goes largely undetected by the general public for so long. With the type of financial abuse that capitalist empire is known for, people are at least more likely to be aware because it tends to have a more visible and broad impact. But for many others kinds of crimes, with the sheer logistical power that capitalists have on hand, who is going to spot what they're doing and stop them? The CIA and other western imperial "intel" orgs who are busy organizing mass murder operations? The FBI who is busy going after racial minorities? The cops who behave like gangs themselves? The individualist liberals who are trimming their suburban garden hedges behind their white picket fences?

Until the working class, the imperialized, the colonized take back power, these lifelong terrorists who frame themselves as visionaries will keep abusing.

The bourgeoisie have class solidarity and are fighting a class war, so conspiracy is just a natural progression.