To get a true perspective of the highland clearances it needs to be studied in the context of it's time. Over the same time period of the clearances an agricultural revolution was occurring in England and the Industrial revolution was making it's first tentative steps. At the same time the enclosure acts were created.
Between 1604 and 1914, over 5,200 individual enclosure acts were passed, covering 6.8 million acres(about 1/6 land area of England, I think) The impact on the individual peasant was similar to the cleared highlanders, in that they also were dispossessed. It never became a headline grabber though. Rights of housebote and firebote were lost aswoodland was enclosed and the openfield system terminated in most places. In reality, for the individual impacted, enclosure has the same outcome - no land, no house and no prospects apart from the slow growth of the factories.
The aristocracy owned Parliament, created all the enclosure acts, and also preferred sheep to tenants in some cases. They still comprise the
major landowners in Britain.