I don't think that's it at all. Wealth and power makes people stupid, and in order to keep believing in their own superior status, they have to believe we are stupider than them, which is very stupid indeed.

Like it or not, even "monsters" have to have a model of the world and a theory of mind in order to operate. If they didn't think about us, they wouldn't be able to exploit us. If they didn't treat us with contempt, they wouldn't be able to exploit us. So, contemptuous consideration it is.

It's just that is a poor model of reality, so it's going to be part of their downfall. They are going to keep treating us as idiots until we surprise them by suddenly not acting the part anymore. These abuses are clear and they are piling up. We remember the panama papers and what happened to those journalists. We remember what happened to Snowden, Manning and Assange. This has an undermining effect on the legitimacy of the system.

You don't see the termites until the house is already falling down around you.