Certainly the elite middle class's argument they should be in their positions of power and influence because they are smarter or more educated has gone in the bin over this bare idiocy.

This is the group who gains my focus. The reason the criminal class is able to continue in power is because they speak a language which the elite middle class believes to demonstrate greater intelligence on whatever the issue at hand happens to be. It's all about the language. The top technocrats (corporate and government both) create an aura about themselves that "these are the ones who know..."

The elite middle class are having a very serious "Come to Jesus" moment as they just begin to realise that these people they worship for using the language that so soothes them are in fact just as venal as the priests of every religion the world has ever known always prove themselves to be in the end.

The Catholic Church lost primacy as the Enlightenment gained ground. The "Scientist/Progressive" church is now dying. If no one can take the role the Enlightenment leaders took back then, the only other option is the next dark age. Still an open question as to which way this goes.