I think the shift began before the Clinton administration. By the late '70s it had become apparent that:

- raising the US median standard of living without raising the rest of the world was politically unstable considering the ongoing conflict with communism and anti-colonialism, and

- raising the US median standard of living and also raising the rest of the world would exhaust resources and become rapidly unsustainable.

The solution was:

- cap the US median standard of living, but allow the assets of the 1% to increase,

- replace foreign aid with foreign direct investment to raise the standard of living in other countries, to increase the wealth of the American 1%, and to create a wealthy class in other countries with similar interests to preserve political stability and the "rules based order".

This has resulted in fairly similar economic oligarchies around much of the world. However, political, historical and cultural differences result in varying affinities, group identities and renewed competition among them.