A certain number of capitalists and technologists have been able to come together with a synergy where the technology is really first & foremost, because it is so promising, and the capitalists so well-heeled that they can take a back seat and get richer just going along for the ride.
In an ecosystem like that, technology really is "above" politics, but political considerations can be much more threatening to capitalists than technologists. When truly bizarre political upset occurs, it rocks the capitalist boat much more than it does the tech component. If any political threat rears its ugly head, or alternatively unforeseen endorsement of predatory instruments such as memecoins, "virtually" overnight you've got a playing field where there is more money in bad old politics than even the newest most profitable technology anybody can imagine.
Because it's true.
When "other peoples' money" is involved, technology development in SV was built largely on a different breed of VCs than you had on Wall Street.
Investing in the technology and the people who develop it, accelerating growth, adding value as much as possible, and even if not adding value, profiting notably from low-hanging fruit ripe for the picking in an environment of increasing prosperity.
For those with massive enough capital, you don't even need to invest wisely by the time ZIRP came around. Wall Street would have cratered without it, but SV went through the roof.
When zero turns into a number though, you separate the men from the boys, like Buffet said when the tide goes out you see who's butt was not covered.
Things shrivel up smaller than you thought, and those without the cojones aren't going to invest in undeveloped technology itself and wait to see how big it grows, when pure politics and financial shysterism pay off better than ever, right here, right now.
This is a major upset when HN has technologists outnumbering capitalists while uniquely accommodating both in a very satisfying way for almost all. One of the key advantages is when capitalists can keep up with technology developments at the same time tech developers can keep up with trends happening among the active capitalists. The capitalists have always been more powerful, and when some of them turn to politics over technology, more technologists are going to follow. Nothing like this can stay above politics completely when one of the major worthwhile participating cohorts puts politics above technology enough to seem like a complete reversal. So fast it can make your head spin.
So many big capitalists are now more concerned with politics than technology, there has got to be an effect on the technologists, especially the ones who were drawn to West Coast VCs because of their contrarian/disruptive approach. That was completely dissimilar to the way NYC financialization mixed with DC political attitudes had traditionally stifled the technology it did support. Back when Boston was a much bigger tech hub by comparison, once SV got really going, East Coast tech founders could move west for deals that were not as ridiculously predatory.
That predatory attitude just hit the West Coast with a vengeance. People want to find out any way they can how deep it will creep and how long it might stay.
The best technology does not have to seek capital or grow that much, and it will be just fine making money without getting any compromised capitalists richer at the same time.
With politicians having the most questionable character becoming more popular than ever, and more capitalists & employers surprising the world when their judgment of character is starkly revealed to have been very uncertain all along, there is a new equilibrium to be reached before it's all over.
Either that or it's all over.