the.com/backdrop
The scenery that takes the credit while the real action happens up front.
means The painted cloth, set, or surrounding circumstances behind a scene, person, or event.
from Theater slang from the 1910s: literally a curtain dropped at the back of the stage, behind the actors.
Stage originNamed for cloths physically dropped behind performers.
Figurative leapNow any context: economic, political, emotional.
Cyclorama cousinCurved backdrops fake endless sky in studios.