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There's not an overarching conspiracy. I think it's a lot simpler than this. Simply put, American elections work in such a way that a two-party system is always going to dominate and the two parties want to keep it that way. The only way to keep the status quo is to keep both parties competitive. That means no landslides or longterm holds on power, at least nationally. This has the fun side effect of generating loads of campaign funds every election. So the parties flip flop not because either side wants to lose power but because they know if they make the public too happy they'll make the other party noncompetitive and throw the political game into chaos.