Your point about real estate makes a lot of sense. Obviously there are a lot of true believers out there but you have to assume it's all get shut down quick smart if someone wasn't making money.

The universities definitely have a lot to answer for, but the pseudo soviet structure than most corporations are based on facilitates all this as well since most people who actually work within the organisation are concerned with personal power and identity politics is the best way to rise up the ranks.

And I agree strongly with your final point - the war against populism is the main driver behind everything we've seen since the Occupy/Tea Party movements and it's gone into overdrive since 2016.