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I am a finance professional as you guessed correctly. I make sure our markets stay functioning smoothly which has positive knock on effects elsewhere. Britain is a net importer, the common man benefits greatly from the pound being as strong as it is, if it were to collapse his energy bills would skyrocket to the levels of 2022, but permanently. Plus I pay huge taxes directly paying for the common man's lifestyle.
If this is the case then how come they were all outcompeted by us? Those people can still try and enter the industry, it's just that when you have a 1v1 on a firm level where one has galaxy brain quants and the other has upper class art history majors the quants send the art history majors packing (side note: I'd probably say I know more art history than your average art history graduate from a non top ranked university, so it's not even like they can hold their own on their chosen field; this isn't me bragging about how much art history I know, it's me dissing the quality of the average art history course).
I agree all of those problems are caused by the actions of elites (mostly because I see elites as the actors while the proles are the acted upon). Lack of housebuilding in particular has been a very big issue. I blame the acceptance of left wing blank slatist ideology for this though instead of any desire to defect against society. The elites of the time genuinely believed what they were doing was best for society. Fortunately they are capable of learning and nowadays you'll easily find many examples of elite human capital speaking out against each of those past mistakes.
Why is Britain now a net importer? Britain was the workshop of the world, they produced everything! Now they're a financial hub with a few high-tech gems like ARM and Deepmind (foreign owned of course). They just dropped out of the top 10 manufacturers for the first time despite being the ultimate incumbent.
Because the old financial system was working to advance the national interest, not just their own private interests. Or at least they weren't sufficiently efficient in pursuing their own private interests that they could harm the country. Yes it is more economically efficient to shut down the British car industry and import from Thailand, from the perspective of the individual company or consumer. But it is not a good thing for the country as a whole to lose industries, lose jobs and end up with deprived areas, mass unemployment and welfarism. Take the case of the last British steel mill getting shut down by Tata because it was unprofitable... I have no doubt that makes financial sense for Tata. But what happens if you have other industries that need steel, where are you going to get dense, integrated supply chains and knowledge-sharing effects? You're not going to get them, Korea will get them. Suddenly Britain is less competitive overall and imports are even higher. Each step of the deadly spiral seems very reasonable yet it ends in collapse, capital flight and brain drain. The pound is too high but can't be lowered without greatly affecting living standards, so more and more industries erode and the problems get worse and worse.
In South Korea and China they repressed the financial system, they forced banks to provide capital for industrial and technological development even where it was less immediately profitable than other areas. Now they're highly developed, advanced manufacturers with huge numbers of robots per worker. Britain has fallen behind in automation because they chose a quick-fix approach of importing cheap labour to drive growth. It's not remotely sustainable in the long run, it's only that from the perspective of a firm it must seem like a great thing. Bring in more consumers and keep wages down, no need to raise investment and compromise profits in the short-term! Never mind the impacts on productivity...
Private gain is not necessarily good for the country. A well-functioning financial system supports other national industries like an organ, it doesn't consume them like a cancer.
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No, it is more likely that you engage in parasitising on actually useful industries, do thinly veiled hazard or legally steal money.
Yes, some parts of financial sector are useful, but judging from your hutzpah I guess that you are engaging in Enron-type activities.
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