Many of the ab-ex artists were far more ideologically aligned with capitalism than other artists had been in the past or even other artists of that time. They were big fans of Ayn Rand for example. (Smh, I love Joan Mitchell's paintings, but she was a fucking Randian freak.)

It wasn't just the abstract expressionists either, but also hard edge, color field and other abstract painters. Many of these artists in particular were greatly influenced by work that centered the Soviet avant-garde artists of the 10-20s. But there is a significant difference between Lissitsky's Red Wedge and what American abstraction was about later on. So the other end of this is the American appropriation of what was very politically motivated art (even outside of a socialist bend, it was art that was antagonistic to the old orders) into decoration.

The CIA didn't create these people, but it was seen as ideologically convenient to support them. Even if the CIA didn't dump money into it, the art would still have been made, exhibited and sold. Maybe less of it, but it was a convenient money sink for the wealthy. It was work which not only didn't threaten them as a class, but pandered to their taste and self image.