Just my take: it's a means to an end. The end, IMO, is global collectivism. But first, the world has to be "softened" to accept this end-goal first.
The roots first were seen about 100 years ago and we've been on a downhill trend since. Everything that's happened since then has been building towards the end goal which is a global collectivist society that isn't restrained by pesky national laws and pesky societies that believe in individual rights. Just read up on the Reece Committee and the Dodd Report that was a result of that investigation. It was seen as outlandish at the time, but in retrospect I'd say it was 100% accurate.
Just my view, TIFWIW.