Exactly right. The rich found this out early last century with the rise of communism. What they did was very clever; they basically introduced socialism in the 1930s by shifting the majority share of production to the masses to keep them quiet, introduced mass higher education with an emphasis on identifying the very smart (troublemakers if excluded) and brought them into the ruling class. Once this "decapitation of the masses” was in place (1970) they slowly took back their share of production. We are now back to the level the rich had in the 19th C. Impressive if somewhat depressing.

Democracy is the insurance premium the rich pay against the threat of pitchforks and guillotines.

Democracy only works if you have leaders. The non-rich no longer have leaders. We do at least have better bread and circus than the past.