[AJ007]

The "top" of society will eventually have no purpose or strength. That may be sooner than even they expect. Technology commoditizes a lot of expert skills quickly even today. Some with great success are finding their skill sets are no longer valid much like kings and princes did in the past.

Start viewing the future as post-human. This is a future where humans are no longer the agents driving economic forces -- any more than other primates are today. Humans conceivably could live alongside sustainably. Or they may go extinct. James Lovelock's most recent book "A Rough Ride to the Future" presents the option of non-biological life continuing on an earth with a climate that no longer supports human life. He does so in the most optimistic way I have heard described. Optimistic, because he previously considered climate change likely to kill all life on earth.

All of this assumes that we do not have a "Great Filter" looming ahead where machine intelligence is totally incompatible with any form of replicating life.