I have no idea if the illuminati is now, or ever has been anything real. My understanding is that the term did refer to an actual group at some point in the past, but whether that group was anything like what people envision now when they say the word, I don't know and I doubt it.
Here's what I do know: whether there is an illuminati, a new world order, or not - there is a systematic destruction of western civilization going on from within. I believe that 99% of those who are key to this process are doing it believing completely that they are doing good. And that they are completely unaware of the consequences. In other words, idealistic naifs. Could there be a small group at the top who are engineering all of this for malevolent reasons? I have no idea. I would tend to think it's more likely that the naivety extends all the way to the top, but becomes increasingly mixed with greed as you enter the upper echelons.
This doesn't really require some group of men in a mansion somewhere in black cloaks scheming. Short-sightedness, selfishness, and greed at the top with utopian naivety for the rest are probably more than sufficient to explain it.
I truly hope that it is not deliberate, because if it's something we've just been stupidly stumbling toward, there's a better chance we can wake up and reverse it. Whereas if it's a deliberate, orchestrated destruction, they will very effectively suppress any corrective backlash until the point where such a backlash could no longer remedy it anyway.