We don't talk enough about a core reason for the fracturing of elite control in politics: the end of board interlocks, the bedrock of the ancient "old boys networks." Sociologists have studied them for a century, now they are rapidly unraveling. Summary: theconversation.com/corporate-amer… 
The end of board interlocks (where directors sit on multiple corporate boards) was caused by the scandals that led to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and the Act itself. It made sitting on multiple boards risky.
100 directors sat on 5+ major boards in 1974, now only one does.
100 directors sat on 5+ major boards in 1974, now only one does.
Elite control via overlapping boards of directors has been concern for so long that soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote a book about it in 1914. Highly connected board members also had links to government and charities, allowing elites to coordinate their action
Powerful business people still have tremendous influence, of course, but it is no longer coordinated influence. Scholars have argued that, with the end of a common elite consensus, individual business people now use their influence in ways that are much less moderated than before
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