As a science-fiction / fantasy novel writer and many other writers have been satirizing/prophesying exactly what you are describing in the new enslavement.

Maybe it began with planned obsolescence that began ramping up in the early '80s. Nevertheless it has been increasingly insidious fueled by greed, power and dominance. It isn't just putting an end to rent-seeking but any corporate monopoly.

Here's a short story I wrote regarding The Corporate United States: https://medium.com/writers-blokke/future-taxes-satire-or-prophecy-aa7e7811619d