Just because they don't believe they are, doesn't mean that's not what they are doing.
Way too late, it's the creation of the fed at minimum in the US.
Globally, you can either go back a few hundred years to the beginnings of the Roths cozying up to royalty and accumulating power.
Or, you can follow the spiritual thread (that of turning to evil for understanding and power, and child sacrifice) and that disappears into pre-history to a time pre-dating the Bible and Jewish monotheism.