Yes, I agree that Trump did not happen overnight and he is not even his own invention. I think, as you say, there was a subterranean effort to build toward where we find ourselves now. It's always looked like that to me because Trump just is a man who lives in whatever moment he us in. He neither understands nor contemplates the past, and he looks no further into the future than his own nose. 

If this effort did not occur, there would be no Trump. He is, as they say, the circus that we are meant to see, while the real work goes on out of sight. The dupes pile into his tent, distracted by his noise and his clown routine and have no idea what it is all about. 

I guess, the endgame is the end of democracy but that makes me believe that the real puppet masters would have to be foreign, outside the US, because they would benefit most from the fall.