For centuries, the social, polictical, and economic elite had been one and the same; power and influence had gone together with social standing and family prestige.
The democratization of politics and the unleashing of the market. however, had destroyed the functional purpose of social standing. Family prestige no longer dominate business or politics. Money was no respecter of persons, and niether were voters any longer. Though the old patrician families still carried on in wealth and to lesser extent, in polictics as well, they had no choice but to make room for those who could clamber up, now that family connections ceased to be a requirement for success.
