Actually, the explanation for Trump's win is more straightforward - though it's hard to figure out unless you've spent some time hanging around the forums, etc. where the Trump supporters have hung out.
He's said more than once, "I am your voice." That's it in a nutshell. He hired some people to listen to talk radio for an entire year before deciding how he was going to kick off his candidacy.
Granted: it's frustrating to see a legion of supporters that are angry at the system but for different reasons. They don't want the system changed, they want it fixed. That's what de-rigging means to them. We have to remember that Joe MAGA doesn't even know what a "central point of failure" is. Not in his gut. All he knows is that the country has gone screwy and that Trump is promising to fix it up.
Controlled opposition? Dunno. In a very real sense, we're all "controlled" by having to live in our time and place. Living in the here and now puts a lot of constraints upon what we can do, especially in politics. If you aim at a comprehensive solution to our woes, the constraint you have to face is unpopularity.