Popular uprising can and does occur over these power imbalances - however historically you need a level of animosity from the monied and powerful towards the underclass, and in this era the capital rich have been very innovative at manufacturing consent and quelling, appeasing, or splitting discontent.

I’m reminded of what’s been going on in Iran the past few weeks - one of the most grasping anecdotes is that poor and middle class people are seeing the children of the powerful absolutely flaunting their wealth, driving maseratis and Porsche’s down the streets of Tehran, and spending more on dog food for a month than people make in a year. Those optics (just how rich the rich actually are compared to you) have been hidden from a lot of American society via exclusive neighborhoods and private airports and a general amount of discretion.

We also don’t have discussions around class because our class hierarchy involves a lot of different verticals by virtue of not having only one culture. The elites of the culture that one belongs to look both a lot more attainable, or at least more inclined to interests that align with the rest of the culture.

So instead of the conflict being up the ladders, the conflict happens between different ladders. That’s at least how I view the current political climate.