Of course the Deep State is not a monolith. As a matter of fact, it can be a combination of various for-profit entities, whether they manufacture overpriced weapons or print pieces of paper with weird symbols on it. The only issue is, this conglomerate of entities may at times have conflicting interests. For example, I was a staunch believer in BRICS, but I have softened my support for it since I came to know about who coined the term BRICS (the term that was coined was
BRIC to be precise, but that is besides the point).
You are correct, assuming what Merkel said
prima facie is what is cooking in the back-burner.
Of course, right and left are both puppets to the same cabal that keep the plebs fighting while they can enjoy the life of opulence. Oh, well, loud calls of patriotism sells. Just think about it - so many American soldiers, sailors, and airmen lost their lives fighting Nazi Germany, and today, the warmonger John McCain goes to Ukraine and hangs out with the Ukro-Nazis and is applauded as a "war hero," apparently for going beyond the brief over Vietnam while in the Navy, getting shot down, and taken prisoner. In an ideal world, he would be stripped of his uniform.
You are correct, there is no permanent Deep State, and as I mentioned, participating entities' priorities change, and one thing is constant thought, that, Russia is the only country capable of challenging the US, and no, I am not talking about the nuclear warheads here.
Ideology is merely a vehicle to gather people onto one side so that they can be pushed to fight conflicts, get killed, or worse still, get maimed and become a vegetable. The ones who make war do not typically fight wars.
PRC, Pakistan, Iran, all have their own interests. The Chinese are very hard working, to the point they would make our hardest working people look like lazy bums. The Iranians are extremely proud of their heritage, and hate being referred to either as Arabs or Middle Eastern. The Pakistanis are blessed with an excellent geographical location which they can leverage easily, and are masters of keeping the right balance between the US, and PRC.
I think there is always a consistent patter if the threat is consistent. The US Deep State is not anti-Muslim. The US is pro-Sunni and anti-Shia. I also strongly believe the US Deep State, Israel, and Saudi Arabia are in bed with all the strifes going on around the world. The US Deep State has a pattern. They create chaos, in which they succeed. Then they try to control that chaos, in which they fail, without exception.
These are just my views, but feel free to add more perspectives.