There's also the trope of the bonding that takes place within smaller military units that makes them committed not to the cause but to each other.
In addition the other side of people too dumb to see their self interest, I am not saying these people are dumb but we see that today if we turn on the news to see for one example - farmers rationalizing themselves being hurt by retaliatory tariffs on American farm stuffs - they seem cognizant of the problem, aware of the higher order consequences for themselves, and willing to accept them to try what seems to be on some terms a way to attempt for fair trade with China, and still support the President. It may be rationalizing but it's not done out of ignorance or stupidity.
What you are asking for in the end sound like some equivalent to Psychohistory in Asimov's Foundation, which would be a neat idea.
Yeah, I keep hearing this, and I just... saying things happen because people are too dumb to see their own self interest is... it's just really unsatisfying. It fits the data, but it also tastes like the other times in my life where I've been wrong because I'm arrogant.
It's also unsatisfying because it's not particularly predictive; it doesn't tell me which elites the masses will follow and why.