And we're not discussing the bulk of the population here, we're talking about elites who are character and outlook-wise, culturally very different. And not even the pols, who are nowadays simply the paid agents of the elites, but the people who exist in the large marbled buildings who may be seen but rarely identified.

That's who this is about. It's like many Brits are nice people (-ish), but there are people at the top who are not very nice. There were people in the UK who, right up to the outbreak of WWII were very much in favour of Herr Hitler and felt that Britain could do with a touch of his reforms.

Exactly.
In the US the Hearst newspaper chain sang the praises of Hitler right up to pear harbor.

The German culture was, like the American one, steeped in dominance dreams and self-deceptive justifications for same.
America remains in the same bloody teapot today. Under the brass plaques and apparent progressivism, ---does Germany?

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.