Crony Capitalism and Redistribution

Here's the gist of what Matt wrote, as I understand it. We have reached a point in advanced economies where macro really doesn't grow the pie anymore and simply is a means of redistribution. Maybe, it's because advanced economies are so rich already. Maybe there are other reasons that the benefits of macro tweaks to growth have diminished. No matter, the fact is a lot of people have believed we were optimizing in response to the trauma of 70s era stagflation by deregulating and promoting and defending free and open markets. But what if, in fact, we were just redistributing?