"In 1900, just under 40 percent of the total US population lived on farms, and 60 percent lived in rural areas. Today, the respective figures are only about 1 percent and 20 percent." [1]
That's a large erosion of political and economic power in those rural areas as more people moved out of agriculture into other industries that tend to be located in population centers. Not sure how that changes unless we move away from large corporate farms back to smaller family farms (See various Wendall Berry essays and novels where he lays out what's happened to rural areas over the last century as family farms have dwindled), however, that seems very unlikely.
[1] http://jaysonlusk.com/blog/2016/6/26/the-evolution-of-americ...
Remove the imperial capitals (DC or London) or financial capitals (London or New York) and the next tier down ain't so much.
Given the metastasizing of the FIRE (finance, insurance, real estate) sections of the economy, and their typical concentration in urban areas, I'd say that rural areas are basically in the same position as a colony to a colonial power.
Shipping cheap raw materials to the cities, who in turn own the shares, banks, and mortgages, has always been pretty common.
Of course, if you are in favor of colonialism....