The period 2008–14 proved to be a resurrection of the 1988–91 period of Prime Minister Chatchai Chunhavan, to the extent that Thailand's highly defective democracy was overshadowed by the military, which itself was eclipsed by the monarchy. As such, though elected civilians appeared to be the ostensible leaders, the monarchy and military obscurely dictated to Thailand's government from the sidelines. In fact, these two authoritarian actors (and their allies) sought not to consolidate pluralism in Thailand but instead to dominate the eroded vestiges of it. Military power during this period was dominated by three military brothers-in-arms: retired general Prawit Wongsuwan (army commander 2004–5), army commander General Anupong Paochinda (army commander 2007–10), and General Prayut Chanocha (2010–14). Their names or nicknames all began with “P”: Prawit, “Big Pom”; Anupong, “Big Pok”; and Prayut, “Big Thu”. Each had commanded the 2nd Infantry Division and were thus members of the division's faction, “Buraphapayak”—in English, “Eastern Tigers”. Anupong and Prayut had commanded the 21st Regiment (Sua Taharn Rachanee, or Queen's Tiger Guard) within the 2nd Division, of which Queen Sirikit was the honorary commandant. Prawit had also served in the 21st Regiment but was hustled away to the 12th Regiment in 1981, a parochial border unit, for participating in a coup attempt in April that year. Nevertheless, in 2004 Thaksin appointed Prawit to be army commander, where he served until his retirement in 2005. The October 2007 annual military reshuffle saw his two younger “brothers”, Anupong and Prayut, ascend to the top of the army.

But following the December 2007 general election, Thaksin's new political party returned to office. Indeed, with 266 seats out of 480 total, the pro-Thaksin Palang Prachachon Party (PPP) formed a coalition government on 28 January 2008. Firebrand politician Samak Sundaravej, an ultra-right-wing political fixture since the 1970s, became Thaksin's nominee prime minister—since Thaksin himself remained a fugitive outside of Thailand. Yet even though the new pro-Thaksin government appeared to threaten the three “brothers” and Thailand's arch-royalist elites, such was not the case.