>>53379336The Elite Four is a military junta established after the country's loss against Unova in the Kanto-American War which took place a few years prior to Gen I.
This would explain why criminal syndicates like Team Rocket can operate out in the open and why the police force is nearly non-existant. Giovanni hands out bribes to the gym leaders (who are basically regional governors) so they don't interfere.
This is also the reason Lt. (I believe he's really a lieutenant colonel) Surge is a gym leader. He's the occupation force's military governor with Vermillion City being a sort of "Special Autonomous Zone" for the American military.
Also, the experiments that played into the creation of Mewtwo happened because Kanto was trying to create a super soldier pokemon in the late stages of the war. People like Mr. Fuji, Blaine, and Prof. Oak were lead researchers into the experiments before things got out of hand and Mewtwo escaped. This is why Prof. Oak gives you the pokedex: not just n order to catalogue all pokemon, but also as a wiretap in his search for Mewtwo on behalf of the government.
And now I take off my schizo hat...