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Because capitalism. Capitalism is basically a philosophy that postulates that people are greedy and selfish, so it makes a society based on greediness and selfishness. It's a self-realizing prophecy if you ask me.
Another word is needed, this one has become so baggy as to be meaningless. Capitalism has been the predominant economic system across the world for centuries now. It just means the accumulation of surpluses, creating economic growth. It has no a-priori about what's done with the surpluses.
Just as the Gilded Age and today's broligarchy were underpinned by capitalism, so were New Deal liberalism and 1980s Swedish social democracy. That last model in particular created a society that was freer and fairer (so: less evil) than any ostensibly "non-capitalist" one has ever been.
Capitalism is a doctrine that's been created in the 19th century and is basically based on private property and accumulation of wealth. It does mean something very simple in fact. And it has nothing to do with democracy or oligarchy.
In French we call the precious system the old regime. It was based on privileges and heredity, not wealth and private property.
That's the fundamentals of the organisation of the society. In Europe capitalism after ww2 was made less damaging to the society because communism was a threat and capitalism had to be seen as a good alternative.
But ultimately capitalism is a sickness that leads to the exact same kind of feudalism that the old regime did. Musk and Trump are merely using the system as intended: they leverage their wealth to get power.