All the preceding has not been an ‘epiphany’ for me, but more like a confirmation of what I’ve termed the ‘.gov gravy train‘ in the past.
The gubbermint has been turned into a racket, packed with those, and their lackeys and cronies, that have been corrupted with the prospect of amassing a fortune from graft, kick-backs, bribes, outright theft and the ‘crumbs’ that are left on the table afterwards.

I think they truly fear that Trump, not being a politician that has ‘paid his dues’ scrambling up the political power ladder, and also not been subject to the usual blackmail to be extorted into being a good little rubber stamp, is an open threat to slam shut the door and derail that gravy train.
This fear has so rattled TPTB that they’ve pulled out all the stops and apparently don’t care what they destroy, somehow believing they’ll just spend more money to rebuild it all,  just as long as they can get Trump out of the way.

Unfortunately, they’ve not learned from the lessons of history, especially of the 20th Century, that quite often, if a society or culture is messed with too much, what comes afterwards is not what they had before, but something much worse.