That’s the very definition of conspiracy:

“a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.”

If you believe that when the elite "look after each other" they abuse their power in illegal and unethical ways, then technically you're a "conspiracy theorist" along with the vast majority of the population.

Edit: And the story has been removed from the HN front page, despite being one of the most popular...

That’s literally “conspiring together”. That’s all conspiracy means. It means some occurrence wasn’t just a fluke action of luck or even of just one guy. It was a group of people “conspiring” together. Think JFK. Did a group conspire? Or was it just Oswald?