IMO Private Equity is just the essence of american idividualism, but applied to capitalism. Every business entity they interact with or come into ownership of is just another resource to exploit. There's no downside to fucking them over, because you'll have moved on to the next thing before they realize you drank their milkshake.
That ethos of "fuck the next year, we gotta fix the next quarter!!!" and epidemic of short-term thinking is what got us here. But by the same token, that sort of insane and dangerous risk taking is exactly how you become a billionaire and join the ranks of the "elite". So it's no wonder why every business-brained asshole doesn't give a shit about consequences, if you do things right you won't have to worry about the consequences.
It's certainly working for elmo so far. He's taken tens of billions in losses and it literally doesn't fucking matter. He still has the keys to the kingdom and the ear of the mad king