We have a world run by cliques right now. Where we had guilds, now we have unions. Corporations, "the intelligence community", "healthcare workers", there are lots of different groups in society that often wild unique, real power and exercise it. What keeps the show going is the illusion of egalitarianism and individualism. When a healthcare company lobbies for laws that make them more money, the healthcare workers clique benefits, so they support it. There are a lot of perverse incentives when you combine cliques and a central lever of power that can be corrupted, not as many when where power resides and where people think it resides look like the same picture.