Power naturally consolidates. If you have a little more power than the next person, the first thing you do is use it to get a little more power. Let that feedback loop run for several thousand iterations and you end up with the massive inequality that has been a hallmark of human civilization since the agricultural revolution.

The only force I know of that has been able to moderate that feedback loop is organization. By very definition, what the elite few who consolidate power don't have is numbers. They are massively outnumbered, which is why they are constantly sowing discord (like fomenting racism). Because they know the only thing keeping them in power is the disorganization of the masses.