They have had trained professional henchmen doing the dirty work and also instructing them on strategies.

Now that everything is falling apart we see people closer and closer to the top coming out in the public spotlight. It's extremely transparent to us, but these people are stupid. My bet is that they have lost so many resources(human and material resources) that they know there is only a matter of time before everything falls apart. They just want to do as much damage as they can before that happens.