That goes along with my concept of US presidency as a Janus-faced creature - the imperial face when it is aligned with the interests of the elite, and the punching-boy face when fails to live to the elite expectations.
BTW - regarding your earlier comments about the definition and nature of the elite (for your book) - an essential element of elite is its elusive, difficult to define and pinpoint character. If you can unambiguously define it, it almost certainly ain't the elite.
I believe it was Foucault (in _Surveiller et punir_ ?) who reflected on the nature of the relationship between knowledge and power and observed that power is the ability to force others to be subject of knowledge i.e. the 'surveiller" being the necessary condition for the "punir." By the same token, an elite by definition cannot be the subject of knowledge, it cannot be "surveiller" and thus "punir." The only knowledge of elite that commoners like us ever have is the "knowledge" that elite gives off itself - which is a bunch of myths and celebrity cult stories.
Consequently, what we "know" of elite is almost certainly deceiving - some of it true some of it not but we cannot tell which. People like you and I may ascertain bits and pieces of it if a member of the elite spills his guts - but that is a very limited knowledge.
By its very nature, elite is a very elusive concept - you know it exists and you know it is very powerful, but you never know exactly who is and who is not its part and what are their goals, motives, resources, capabilities - except what the elite gives off itself and what you imagine about it. It is pretty well captured by Franz Kafka in _The Castle_ especially the metaphor of man waiting to be admitted to Law http://www.herzogbr.net/kafka/beforethelaw.htm
That a door is made especially for people like you and I, every one of us in fact, is a part of the allure of the elite's illusory image.
Wojtek