One of my favourite things about recent star wars is how they portray the empire.
Across multiple media, Obi wan, Bad Batch, Rebels, Andor especially, and recently Maul, we see how the empire only serves Palpatine. Nothing else. Nobody else. And he does not share power.
They treat the empire as an all consuming plague (as they should) . It doesn't matter who you are, Jedi, Rebels, Sith, Criminals, Common people, Even imperials themselves....EVERYONE suffers. The Empire does not care. It does not reward anything. Everyone is always afraid, always miserable, both the bullies and the victims. The Empire is truly Cancer, it just takes and takes and takes until it swells.
This also makes me genuinely love Palpatine as a villian within the narrative. He's just pure, unfiltered evil. Man is THE ultimate sith. The epitome of what it means to be a sith. Everything belongs to him, and to him only. He does not give a fuck about the rule of two, he does not care about vader, he doesn't care about the sith, he doesn't care about his officers, nobody. It's only him and HIS empire. Nobody else's. He finessed the galaxy into willingly making him a dictator by pointing out what others did wrong and making sure you're never looking at him and what he's doing.
There were many things wrong in the galaxy before his arrival but after the empire things get unmistakably worse, and I'm glad star wars is showing this considering our....real world situations.