You may sometimes hear it said that "they" are responsible for the erosion of our democracy, or "they" burglarized our society from the inside out, or "they" are calling all the shots. They did this... they did that... they should pay for what they've done.

This expression of "they" is, on the one hand, no more than a turn of phrase,  a pronoun intended to express a collectivized concept of the power-brokers (politicians, banksters, etc.) one comes to recognize as the parts of an oppressive and corrupt system. On the other hand, this formulation of "they" illuminates an image of the oppressive system as a kind of cloak and dagger organization, something like a demonic cult or twisted college fraternity that sets out to destroy the world.