I keep identifying the the villains, but eventually, I realized that the writers of mainstream media are heavily invested in the status quo.

Isn’t that because there are fewer unambiguous ways to be “good”? Even many people doing “good” could be seen by others as being evil?

• “I’m saving the forest!” “You’re killing loggers”
• “No one will every go hungry again!” “You stole every piece of arable land and only grow the food you want to exist”
• “I’ve saved everyone’s soul. Everyone is going to the happy afterlife when they die!” “Which religion’s afterlife are you calling the ‘happy’ one?”

Also, villains are often coded as minorities, whereas the heroes are basically the mainstream.