whatifalthist compares our current establishment society as a woman egging on her husband until he snaps -- It's difficult to understand why these people are trying to make the people whose goodwill they rely on hate them.
On the other hand, I've seen women like that irl -- for them, it makes them feel in control putting the more powerful person (physically, socially, financially, whatever) they're relying on into a role of an attacked loser in the short term, even if it means ultimately losing that person's support in the medium term.
Before the French Revolution, first the nobility dramatically underestimated its own power leading to appointments with the guillotine during the Revolution since it turned out the nobility had no real power -- not only did the people support the revolution, but so did the army who was sick of the nobles shit, and later the leaders of the revolution such as Robespierre underestimated their own power leading to their own appointment with the guillotine.
This goes to show that sometimes there is no greater plan, the powers that be are simply decadent and disconnected from the reality of the consequences of their actions right up until the moment those consequences manifest. It could get seriously ugly.