It takes effort to make money to buy things we don’t prepare. Everything takes effort; it’s the trade off that needs evaluation. “Takes effort” is a given.
Their plan is project an image of cool headed control to keep their power and status quo intact as long as possible. No reason to be the one to risk destabilizing things that work well for them. Even if society intentionally reorganized itself, institutions may become meaningless, ending the good times for leaders and their cottage industry the institution provides.
I don’t think it’s an intentional conspiracy, but lack of material upside (the root of power being material ownership), for powers that be to risk their power and (for some) legacy as being the one in charge when it all went sideways. Such folks do not live long after the fall.
It would be nice if we’d stop deluding ourselves that “rule of law” is any better than “rule of theology”.
Distant caretakers expropriating communal effort of “free people” under law may as well be an unfalsifiable divine mandate.