It's less a masterstroke of the rich, and more the media environment the various voter blocs you mentioned are soaking their minds in 24/7

That media environment was in fact the masterstroke.

I understand your point here, between social media (for the young) and TV for the old, there's certainly a lot of sources of information.

I get the urge to find someone to blame. It's not the fault of the voter, because that would imply personal accountability. Or at the very least, it would imply a lot about the underlying character of chunk of the population.

On the other hand, you can't blame the media for gas price reports. Or the cost of housing. Or the people dying of measles. Or the men in masks rounding up people. The voter can see all that themselves.

The voter knows about the current conflict with Iran. That is not a "media bias". They are free to decide themselves if that is justified.

The voter who spends all day on Fox news is welcome to decide for themselves if they want a hand-out of cash promised for after the the election. (A promise they've heard before, but not seen).

So yeah, it eould be nice to blame the oligarchs, or the media, or China, or the church, or pretty much anyone, as long as that anyone is not the voter who can see what is happening, and votes for more of the same.