yes, recently I went to the hardware store to get a block and tackle system [0], which I had to use many times as a child (helping my stepfather who was an independent mason, in our "free" time). I remember seeing them in the hardware store more than 10 years ago, and they weren't very expensive in the past. I was surprised not to find any block and tackle system, well they had a pricey electromotor winch and they also had separate individual pulleys and carabiners, but combining those would quickly become a sloppy mess and approach a substantial fraction of the electric winch price... Block and tackle systems have been perfected over the ages with progressively better and better materials regarding strength and friction. Electric cranes/winches have their use cases of course for very heavy loads or faster work, but they also have a lot of disadvantages: they need a nearby power outlet or a generator (B+T you can take to the forrest if you want), there is virtually no feedback apart from your visual observation of the load, and they make a load of noise due to the gearbox. This reduces safety: due to the noise, not only can you hear less if others are speaking / warning you about a problem, but you also don't hear if the load is scraping against something (using an electric crane I once jumped away just in time as I saw a large bucket full of gravel stones tip over because the rim of the bucket got stuck on the other side of the bucket, out of view), but also with a block and tackle system, you feel if the bucket load is scraping or starting to tip through the rope line! I don't care how many bluetooth apps, or blinking leds you attach to an electric winch, it will never succeed in being as intuitive an actuating interface as the load line in your hands, and it is silent so you can hear problems with the load scraping against something, or warnings from other people.

Locally we have a couple of large hardware store franchises that have displaced the smaller independent hardware stores, and its the same everywhere. I don't believe there is some greedy scrooge who plotted the removal of the analog block and tackle systems in order to force a higher expense in either individual pulleys (for those who feel they need an actual B & T, DIY if necessary) or in the electromotorized winch (for very heavy loads or faster work). What I do believe is that at some point inventory software was marketed to them, with machine learning to optimize profit, and they blindly followed what the algorithm observed (perhaps some of the shops in the franchise were temporarily out of B & T when they still sold them, whereas others had it in inventory, upon which those who needed to raise a heavy load right then, decided to buy either multiple pulleys and 2 carabiners or the electric winch. so the algorithm that knew stock saw a move that increased profit if they would refuse to stock B&T systems in the future...)

So now most people in the West who in the past would have bought a B & T for occasional use, now can only buy a more dangerous, and more expensive and less intuitive device. I'm sure B & T's are still made, but I'm also sure a large number of factories that made them were subsequently closed because "demand fell" or rather "algorithm decided to let demand fall". I'm also pretty sure teachers in technical schools are still teaching kids to calculate the load for N turns through a B&T system in various kinds of scenarios even though those students will not be able to find one when they find themselves in need (they could probably still order them online, but if you see it as a basic tool at school you probably expect it to be for sale instantaneously in the brick and mortar hardware stores...)

So the problem is: conspiracies exist, but they are emergent, not explicit, the programmer who wrote the inventory optimizer did not intend to replace all B&T's with electric winches at the pain of clumsy multipart pulley system. Nor did employees in the store come up with this scheme. And yet the conspiracy is executed, because if we blindly optimize we effectively and systematically turn a blind eye to potential exploitation...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_and_tackle