I think a lot of what they are doing has been planned for decades but it does feel rushed. All of the war mongering factions are making moves like they won't be able to do it if they don't act now. Thankfully a lot of their structures are controlled by incompetent fools and nepo babies

They know the world is going to change a lot over the next few decades and they want to control that as much as possible. I sometimes wonder if they know something major is coming, like the gulf stream clasping or another major climate event.

When the people stand as one there won't be much they can do. They are quite adept at keeping us fighting each other though