the traditional avenues of preserving power and control (influence over media, politics and money) don't work as well anymore

This is my leading hypothesis. I think the rest is an attempt to preserve control, like you say. However, I'm not sure if it's more likely because they think it will work or that it will buy them time to extract as many resources for themselves before the door closes.

This question should be a separate post. I would love to hear ideas from the broader community.