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Here is the long view of what is happening as presented by the great historian David Hackett Fischer in the key book "The Great Wave - Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History".
His data only goes to the end of the last century but I am sure you can see the meaning of the data plot. There are periods of history where the elite capture the system. Prices for key goods - food and energy rise. What you don't see on this graph is that wages fall. So do the costs of manufactured goods.
Then there is a bust up followed by a period of equilibrium. And then the whole thing starts over again.
Here we see the key indocator - the price pf grain. Note what is happening today to food prices and real wages.
Now look at these dates and think abut what happened at the pinnacle of each phase. Longe term starvation set up the Eurpean peasantry for the Black Death. A collpase in population and a break from the feudal system. Money became the key. Ties to the land were weakened forever.
In the 16th century, a loss in confidence in the ruler's connection to God lead to the Reformation. In Engand to civil war and the death of a king. To the founding of America with the values of the "Elect".
In the 18th century, the French Revolution and the beginning of the end of Monarchy as a system.
So who rules today? We have in effect a new aristocracy - now who pass their power on by birth. Who have a feudal system of serfs and servants. Whose religion is free markets.
It won't end nicely - it never does.
It will end though.
