In the late American Empire, the power brokers in Washington became the elite security details hired by the CEOs of the country's largest corporations. Failure to maintain their exorbitant benefits packages could result in a CEOs death at any moment - and even paying them off was no guarantee of safety, as in 2045 the influential "Mr Beast" was assassinated just two weeks after his takeover of Disney, despite paying what were at the time the highest bonuses ever paid to a security team as documented in his final youtube video, "Giving Thirty Security Guards One BILLION Dollars Each!"
Historians mark the subsequent auctioning of the Disney CEO position by White Skull Protection Services LLC as one of the lowest points in the late Imperial period.
(a history text in 2100)