This is probably a natural evolution.
The natural evolution of a purely capitalist system, I mean. The first hint that something was amiss came to me long ago when employees stopped being people (who were routed through the now defunct "Personnel Office") and became YAN resource to be consumed by bizness (hence, routed through "Human Resources").
A perfect capitalist systems does not require working people. The only people required in such a system are the handful of people who own all the capital. Uber-capitalists in this country, somewhat paradoxically, could look to the UAW's experience to learn an invaluable lesson. In the 1970's, GM employed roughly 490,000 living, breathing, and yes, consuming people. Today that number is roughly half that of what it was. This is in no small measure because the UAW maintained that its semi-skilled people continue to be paid $25-$30/hour in their efforts to construct a product targetted to sell to a populace that, on average, made $6/hour. It had to fail, at least for many, and it did.
What capitalists can never seem quite to grasp is when they have enough. Moreover, they fail to see that when they continue to get more beyond what is enough they will ultimately lose it all.
To borrow from the pResident, "Bring 'em on."
