tired: the empire did nothing wrong
inspired: the separatists (prequel trilogy) did nothing wrong

The claims in "official" star wars canon (aka propaganda) is that actually evil characters like palpatine were pulling the strings. But this is biased and often malicious exaggeration, not fundamentally different from how various movements and countries on earth often get branded as "neo-nazis", "CIA conspiracy", etc

I thought the claim was Palpatine's relationship to the Separatists was more akin to CIA-financed revolutions to advance American interests - i.e., Palpatine had no interest in the grievances of the Separatists than their utility to destabilize the Republic and create access to power.

The Separatist grievances existed outside of Palpatine's influence, but he most certainly worked to amplify those grievances into a full-scale conflict for his own benefit.