TBH modern dictatorships are a lot less obvious in the way you describing.

There are dictatorships, where a very select few people have absolute power, but there’s no visible dictator.

Iran is a country like this. There’s no visible dictator. It’s a game of power between the clergy, the military, and the civil government.

Those are more like aristocracies or oligarchies than dictatorships though. Though maybe those are not the best descriptions of Iran either

There is a long tradition of calling rule without care for the ruled 'tyranny'. Aristotle considered this the worst perversion of the best form of government, i.e. monarchy.