We were warned before then by Eisenhower in his final Presidential address, but the tail end of the 60s was likely when Americans started to realize that we could not stop the rush. Endless money and inscrutable power will be forever intertwined, from the Medici's silent rule of Italy to now, where a few million dollars donated to the policeman's union by JP Morgan can buy the emptying of Zuccotti park and put the kibosh on the months-long Occupy movement.
It's certainly not hard to imagine this (all you need are a few Valchek characters at some important desks), but do you have a citation for this?
[1]http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/10/is-jp-morgan-getting-...
http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/Republican-Propaganda1s...
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-the-gop-became...
These focus on the Republican party but much of the same can be said of the Democrats as well.
Another name might be corporate welfarism.
They all add up to the same thing: elites running the country as their private playground.
Most of the Tea Party and Occupy * folks have absolutely no idea what's going on, nor any idea of how to fix it, but they do know something's horribly wrong, and are taking to the streets to demonstrate at least that fact.
If you want to learn more, read http://lewrockwell.com/ over a period of months--some of the best libertarian / Austrian school writers on the planet, and others with a similar bent.