Weird aside, but Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Is actually kind of base on a true story. Oil, tire, and car companies did actually conspire to dismantle Los Angeles' then extensive street car network, and then pretty much every other major American city too.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy

The rich are also really stupid and shortsighted. The consolidation of wealth leads to populism, which leads to authoritarianism.

Have they not seen what happens when they clash with authoritarianism? They should look at Jack Ma and realize that, from a game theory perspective, if they just stand against tyrants and ease up on tax reform, they stand to preserve their power and wealth better...

We do, but it's really scaled back compared to what we used to have. There are so many scars of abandoned rail lines all over major cities where they were torn out and replaced with road infrastructure. So many central train stations that are shadows of their former selves.