Your short comment rings very true to me and reminded me of Adam Curtis' "Century of the Self" theory which in his latest documentary "Hypernormalization" gets developed even further. I guess you might know it but for those who don't - both freely available on youtube.

Century of the Self: https://youtu.be/eJ3RzGoQC4s

Hypernormalization https://youtu.be/F8YqRaZSZWo

Adam Curtis: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Curtis