That may be, I'm just dismissing that "assets are cheap" is evidence that there is no cabal. I'm not sure who is fighting over the scraps- Rothschilds and Carnegies? I haven't heard of that.
I don't know about "pipe-dream". There are organizations we're aware of that literally control economic conditions of the world such as the Federal Reserve. Do you remember voting for anyone on the Fed board? They are appointed by presidents. We vote for a president in America- but we can decide between the rep-party backed candidate or the dem-party backed candidate. If you can't convince one party to support you there is literally 0 chance to win in a "first-past-the-post" electoral system. I see a system of "checks and balances" but not one that benefits us.
I think that your scenario is more likely (which to me, is that what we're seeing is just the outcome of deregulated capitalism) but I wouldn't fall out of my chair to find that strings are being intentionally pulled by the people who control the world to benefit themselves.