I'm starting to think that an intelligent species with the social hierarchy that we have, can only go to a certain level of advancement.

Then it becomes impossible to move further, without changing the social schema. Possibly into a hive form, where everything is easier to manage.

From an engineering point of view, it's the perfect choice: easy to manage, easy to enhance, divide labour and what not. From a social point of view, yikes.

Is there a branch of sociology or something that study the effects of different social schemas?

But then we might not have come here without our social hierarchy, exactly because it is harder to manage. It makes people want to outsmart each other. (This is actually a hypothesis in evolution theory.)

"Resistance is futile."

We are the technology. Resistance is futile. Your technological and cultural distinctiveness will be added to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. We are the technology, resistance is futile.