It takes a lot of exogenous effort to change whatever payoff matrix is in peoples minds wrt prisoners dilemma and shit. The average person would probably do the same if they saw it right in front of them and they had access to the button to release them - but change up being able to see your fellow humans trapped to debt cycles, poverty, prisons hidden away, people dieing of covid and it starts to change the equivalent nash equilibrium in peoples brains to one of self-preservation over mutual aid. Then change the button that could release the prisoner into a distributed and complicated web of relationships that we all have to take part in, change it so people see the button as reformist parliamentarianism and going along just this one time so we can get em in a couple years, and kill the few people that are breaking out of that matrix of control (like Fred Hampton) and you can waste millions of peoples efforts and misdirect peoples natural inclination to help into little busy boxes.