[WS:] Indeed. Quid quid agis, prudenter agas et respice finem ;)
CG: "They seem to be single handedly responsible for catastrophy after catastrophy"
[WS:] I disagree - like Hitler, they have a whole bunch of willing executioners. Elites can do what they do, because a lot people see that as legitimate, for the most past at least. To use a simple example, people may be upset about banksters running the economy aground and laughing all the way to the bank, but at the same time they oppose any government regulation, tax or intervention in the economy and they consistently vote for pro-business politicians and against those politicians who propose downward wealth redistribution.
The elite-blaming trope obscures more than it reveals about how the system works. Ir really works by consensus rather than by coercion and outright deception - as many lefties imagine. Consensus in this context does not mean "free choice" of course, but rather consent to - in the sense no contest - to what is perceived as legitimate prerogatives of those in power.
For that reason, I do not think that a radical departure from the status quo is possible, save for a few historical accidents when the status quo was destroyed by the outside forces. Any change must be brought dressed up in the costumes of the past and in time-honored disguise and borrowed language - as the Old man aptly observed. The "principled" everything or nothing grandstanding of leftist radicals is a sure way of relegating themselves into complete irrelevance.
Wojtek