We like to feel that we as a species are still in control. That yes, we are gutting and destroying natural earth, complicit with modern slavery and war, and that's all terrible and we should do our best to stop it. BUT - at the very least, those bastards at the top know what they're doing when it comes to making money, so at least we'll have a stellar economy and rapid technological advancement, despite all that.
The painful truth here being that no, there's no cunning. There's no brutal optimization. Any value created and technological progress made is mostly incidental, mostly down to people at the bottom working hard just to survive, and a few good ideas here and there. The ones at the top are mostly just lucky and along for the ride, just as bumbling and lost as the rest of us when it comes to global happenings or even just successfully interacting with others.
There is a famous quote from the 1600s:
"An nescis, mi fili, quantilla prudentia mundus regatur"
"Do you not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?"
The context is that the son was preparing to participate in high level diplomacy and worried about being out of his league, and the quote is from his father, an elder statesman.