Interesting food for thought @honeybee. When you talk about 'the third state' are you referring to incumbent bureaucrats? Most of the activity takes place at this level. Mostly not key decisions but decisions based on predetermined rules that rarely change. It is actually pretty boring. This is more 'Brave New World' than '1984' type of control. It is very effective at blocking innovation, new ideas, or criticism of the existing system. It is self sufficient and requires little to no input from the elites.

The deep state interests me more. Do you consider shape-shifting aliens such as the annunaki/chitauri/archons? These aliens are believed to control the human race from another dimension. This makes them mostly undetectable by humans. Some Christian Gnostic scripture makes reference to Alien like creatures calling them Archons.