They, I think as the US Agriculture guy, did say it wasn't an alien invasion. I guess technically they might not know that, but to me that was a clear indicator that there isn't a ruling outside force.

Also while they are doing whatever they are told, it's just some light babysitting from their perspective. There are 12 (?) people worldwide who aren't part of the hive, we met the half that can speak English. Each of them has a chaperone and that one guy has a small harem. The other 99.9% of Earth is doing... Something. We've seen them cleaning up. They know how many months away they are from improving the infection rate (based on the guess of all the best scientists in the world).

So what do "they" want?