If democracy is predicated on independent thought and decision (free speech, free vote), then the "rudder" in this analogy becomes authoritarianism with an additional step.

Yes, I am not advocating for it. Just pointing to the historical moment when the insight became concrete enough to deploy. The propaganda arm of the modern economic apparatus is -literally- The Matrix. The political / economic theories that inspired The Matrix are works like Society of the Spectacle which express exactly what you just said in extreme detail; that whoever has control or even just a significant influence over the images and words that move through peoples' minds in effect has them enslaved in a form of Panopticon.