Populists would love to convince you that "the elites" and "the people" are distinct groups that are pitted against each other in an eternal struggle. They do this in many cases to convince "the people" to adopt radical fringe views.

In the past (and present!) this false narrative has been used to push mostly bad things: nativism, xenophobia, and really dumb economic policy. By falling for this false distinction you are priming yourself to be susceptible to demagoguery and similar bad ideas.

If you look at reality you'll find that most distinctions between "the elites" and "the people" collapse and there is substantial overlap between both groups, both in membership and in their political self-interest.

this is a non-answer unfortunately

No, it’s a very clear answer: the elite-people distinction is mostly false, therefore populism operates on a false premise.

ok, so whats the alternative interpretation, and what better future does that enable?

Don’t you see?

In The People vs The Elite, there are people and there are elite people.

People are people and elite people are people, therefor the people are the elite! Qed