Afghanistan has a long history of clans based on warlords working for whomever seemed to be winning. “The Taliban” in this regard seems to me to be the group under which the warlords decided to congeal, rather than somehow being the same people hiding for two decades. It’s a simple matter of the way the wind is blowing.

The same people who were there ruling under US occupation are now ruling as Taliban - same game with a different name.

Highly recommend Steve Coll’s work on this topic.