Crowd intelligence trumps that of a given individual or subset of society every time. The advent of the car, after the horse, shaped society in determining the size of streets, what walkable cities are, public transport, and has had global impact, unanticipated at its inception. If you do a bit of research on the history, history of cities, cities of power, etc, they don't fit in a single timeline. They are multiple. Every human society and city has its own history. Each city is its history (no matter what it might be).