This smells like concessions to avoid larger inconveniences to me.

That’s exactly what it is, and it’s not new. It might seem paradoxical, but the very wealthiest capitalists – the movers and shakers of the entire ruling class – are often less concerned about day-to-day profits than maintaining the stability of the system. This is because their wealth is so bound up with the entire system, and if it collapses, they do too; hence they are often willing to countenance “progressive” reforms, especially if they can so swing it that other capitalists lower down the ladder of wealth are the ones footing the bill. This is sometimes referred to as capital taking on a “managerial” mindset. Examples of it are DuPont supporting the creation of the Federal Reserve, the Rockefellers supporting Roosevelt, and so on. This creates tensions, of course, within the ruling class, as less wealthy capitalists (whose business empires will often shrink) resent the restrictions which high-level capital is forcing on them, and seek to throw off the imposed restraints.