Are we really saying that the common man wanted to ride trolley cars and interurbans, but that they were forced to drive cars by a hegemony of oil, car, and tire companies?
I submit that it was by far the other way around. People wanted cars, and pretty much neglected all forms of passenger rail service in favor of the private car as soon as the road system and the cars improved enough to make it practical all over the country. You don't have to look far into the history of turn-of-the-century pop American culture to understand how popular those first cars quickly became. You might well make the argument that it was this industry that did as much or more than anything else to help us win WW1 and WW2.
I further submit that had there been sufficient customers and profits for the trolley cars, those companies would have been more than happy to raise their prices and make as much money as they could on electrified railways. Trouble was, the public abandoned them in favor of the private car.
This kind of conspiricy theory is sort of like saying that Nike and the others sports shoe people ganged up and smashed down the leather shoe industry in the U.S. - in spite of the obvious fact that teenagers everywhere really wanted a pair of Florsheim wingtips.