you make some very good points here
We really need to have a healthy respect for (and maybe even fear of) these people. They are wielding power that can really bite.
Even if they are doing it with puppet strings being pulled (by which side? and to what end?) this stuff is gonna hurt.
Mark my words, before this is over, you will be seeing people trying to control other people on the ground level: your boss, your family member, your friend, your grocer, the guy in the elevator with you. Folks will become very uncomfortable on both sides.
ie Not a laughing matter.