I don't endorse the GPs view in totality, but I don't think its necessary to have some secret cabal deciding things in order to have a discussion about the 'purpose' of complex social systems. taking just the example in the OP, parents need to go to work from 9 to 5 to feed their family, so they need their kids to be in school sooner than that so they can get them out the door, so they go to school board meetings and make sure that the start time stays early. No one shadowy is making this decision, its the result of a consistent failure to address the root causes and orient the system towards its intended purpose as part of a larger social system.

If I start living in my van to renovate my house, but I never call any contractors or work on it myself, how long is it before I just become a guy who lives in a van? In the same sense as the van, sets of institutions that aren't subject to constant maintenance and orientation towards their purpose evolve to fill whatever broken niche exists by way of stochastic individual action.