Today we think we live in a modern world of countries/sovereign states. We think that these states are independent and their governments rule their defined territories and populations freely. We see and hence believe that different states have different types of governments such as democracies (some good and some not so good), dictatorships, communist states, theocracies, some quaint little monarchies, and maybe a few other types.
But irrespective of the type of government we think these states run their own administration, law and order, money supply, resource allocation, economies, education, science and technology, military and other such areas which a state must run. We think these states secure their own borders and do business and war with other states as per their own will. Typically we think the purpose of these states is to work for peace and prosperity of their own people, or at least of their own rulers. In theory, for democracies, people themselves are the rulers so the above two purposes become one.
Yes, in geopolitics we do see some powerful visible states trying to influence or bully smaller or weaker states, but other than that we common people of the world think we live in a world of sovereign states. We believe what we see.
Surprisingly, the above 'self-evident reality' of our modern world couldn't be further from the truth! All states of the world, including the powerful seeming states, right up to superpowers like US and Russia are secretly controlled to greater or lesser degrees by a hidden, very powerful entity. This entity is the Deep State.
Deep State influences or even fully controls who wins elections in 'democracies', it operates religions and their leaders, it invented and still pushes communism, and it props up military dictators. That covers all forms of governments I mentioned in the first paragraph, except those quaint little monarchies. I am leaving those out because those actually have a much bigger, special connection with Deep State.
By influencing or even fully controlling governments of states worldwide, Deep State decides how countries are run, how resources are allocated, how money supply is controlled, how natural resources are allocated, what economic activities are financed, what should be the direction, nature and extent of technological progress of the country, how powerful its0 military gets to be, and what kind of international trade is done. Almost all wars including the world wars are also fake wars, orchestrated by Deep State, with most adversaries operated by Deep State as puppets.
For a state which is controlled by deep state, the prominent leaders and public personalities typically know about Deep State because they are themselves its willing or unwilling puppets. They are its beneficiaries, as well as victims. I say beneficiaries as well as victims because Deep State typically operates these people as puppets by carrot and stick principle. It rewards them for obeying and running deep state agendas successfully and punishes them for refusing or failing to obey. Typically it will reward them well for relatively good or routine work, also make them do some profitable evil, and towards the end force them to do very evil things unwillingly because it now has leverage over them. Of course even without such added leverage, Deep State always has the option of threatening them and theirs with ruin or death after first making their life. They may also threaten by appealing to the nobler side "Do this or we harm your country." Overall it's a classic 'deal with the Devil'.
Even if most people won't make such deal with the devil, someone will and that's enough for Deep State. Typically these people are from families who have loyally worked for or benefited from Deep State in the past. Yes Deep State spans generations, centuries even. It has a deep history.
Through such 'deal with the devil' or 'carrot and stick' arrangement, Deep State is deeply entrenched in countries it operates in, by controlling top politicians, bank bosses, corporate bosses, media personalities, movie celebrities and other artists, sportspersons, spiritual and religious leaders, etc as its foot soldiers. Apart from these prominent people, key people of civilian and military services of the state are also usually aware. But most other people in the government machinery do not know and common people do not know. That way it is deeply hidden.
Thus Deep State is a powerful, behind-the-scenes entity that controls those things which we typically expect sovereign States to be in charge of. Hence the word State. It has a deep history, is deeply entrenched in countries it operates in, yet it is deeply hidden from most people. Thus we call it Deep State. And unknown to you it controls your life. Deep State does not do all this for peace and prosperity of the people of the countries or states which it controls, nor for benefit of visible rulers of these territories, but ultimately for the wealth and power of the top bosses of Deep State itself. And as I hinted, it is related to the monarchies who ran empires for the same purpose, but did it more openly in the past.