It's important to remember that people are not some homogenous mass.

There were certainly some rich and powerful people who did intend to lower everyone (else) to a shit position.

That's what stuff like anti-union policies are about. Sure, they drape it up in nice rhetoric, but ultimately the intent is to reduce the power (and thereby the material outcomes) of the common the worker.

But of course there were also other developments that had the effect more unintentionally.