Not my explanation, but one I've seen in esoteric circles: Magic is real but it's controlled by mass-consciousness.
Imagination is the breeding ground for tomorrow's happenings in ways far beyond the mundane or physical. I firmly believe all eventually realize this when they choose to seek something beyond the day-to-day world as it is presented. Each individual is responsible for
and shapes their own reality through their beliefs and desires.
Depending on where one is in their own journey, that paragraph may sound incredibly obvious and shallow. It may also suddenly make an awful lot of sense in ways previously unseen. Eyes to see, ears to hear, etc.
If everyone thinks everything is lame and gay, reality becomes lame and gay. The limitations of what's possible are what people think are possible, so doing this like this keeps the world mundane.
Keeping attention focused on anything outside of one's self is really the underlying feature of this life in the present, or so I'd suggest. When one is new to the whole conspiracy idea or just starting to stir from their slumber, so to speak, then it's very easy to go from case to case to case pointing out all the ways things are not as they seem. How reality is shaped through the power of thought control, for example.
To many, getting to at least this point will seem quite evident.
When one is ready, then the deeper trend of it all arranges into vision, and it goes much further than just the physical. It's not just that "the elite"/TPTB/etc are "getting away" with this or that while they keep the masses in docile slumber. That's very surface level and frankly not worth the effort of picking apart each instance of it. No, they're actually shaping reality through carefully crafted packages of beliefs that are relentlessly
suggested out to each individual exposed to them.
Suggested being the operative word here, as they cannot force anyone to believe anything. It's just very easy to continuously accept beliefs handed to one by another when one has spent their whole life passively acquiescing to each "new thing" thrown their way.
Reality is shaped by belief, and these harmful mass beliefs ensure..disparate quality of life, let's say, between the sleepwalkers and the malicious intent of an awakened few taking advantage. It gets to a point where personal experience (which is far and above the best teacher) is (
suggested, once again) to not be trusted. One's very own genuine experience is made out as a farce.
I'll leave it at that, as I'd rather offer something more can digest without causing a kneejerk shut-down response in the reader.