People don't have the time, money, or energy. And they will continue to lose all three until there is no option but to figure out collective organisation
It definitely feels deliberate and yeah it is a feedback loop.
I hold some hope that it’s just an unexpected outcome of a complex system. otoh, that would male it more difficult to remedy.
Preferential attachment is a natural phenomenon, but corporations have gotten really good at exploiting it. This is one reason I favor just breaking up businesses beyonda. certain size. The ostensible consumer benefits of scale are outweighed by the 2nd order costs of market distortions. Efficiency is nice but not worth the combination of rent-seeking and adversarial zero-sum strategies.