You can decide to make a left turn without knowing whether you're going to end up in Kamloops or Kapuskasing by doing so. That's the level of steering that's going on: no one is looking past, at most, the next couple of intersections, and the GPS is on the fritz.

Deliberately, definitely not. Like OP said, why would anyone want this?

There's leaders, but there's a lot of leaders, they have interests at odds with each other, and none of them have a position that can't be lost one way or the other (even dictators fear a coup). In the end, they end up part of the system, not controlling it.