Mostly, I think they silently cooperate in a way that looks coordinated, but is just individual self-interest that happens to line up.

Plato observed this. It’s called oligarchy. He said the good news is that it eventually falls because of the lack of coordination, because oligarchs having their own interests end up conflicting one another. The people also always get fed up with corruption eventually. The bad news is that it will get worse before it gets better.