Three to Four hundred years ago, society looked up to the elite as a force for the common good. The elite’s role in society was further romanticised by French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) in a concept called ‘noblesse oblige’ - where it is the noble obligation of those who have to look after those who have not.

Even during the times of Ancient Rome, the elites were the saving grace of the Republic; “The wealthy classes were also the first to volunteer extra taxes when they were needed… A graduated scale was used in which the senators paid the most, followed by the knights, and then other citizens.

In addition, officers and centurions (but not common soldiers!) served without pay, saving the state 20 percent of the legion’s payroll,” as explained by historian Peter Turchin in his book War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires.

“The richest 1 percent of the Romans during the early Republic was only 10 to 20 times as wealthy as an average Roman citizen."

It was also in this book where he narrated that when Rome’s noble and upper class began to put their self-interest and greed before their social responsibilities that the empire started to crumble:

"An average Roman noble of senatorial class had property valued in the neighborhood of 20,000 Roman pounds of gold. There was no “middle class” comparable to the small landholders of the third century B.C.; the huge majority of the population was made up of landless peasants working land that belonged to nobles. These peasants had hardly any property at all, but if we estimate it (very generously) at one-tenth of a pound of gold, the wealth differential would be 200,000! Inequality grew both as a result of the rich getting richer (late imperial senators were 100 times wealthier than their Republican predecessors) and those of the middling wealth becoming poor."

Surprisingly, much of Ancient Rome’s “the end of an era” omens appear as present-day realities in our world today. This comes as an ominous warning as historian Arnold Toynbee’s observed in his study of the rise and fall of civilisations: "Civilisations fail when their elites change from an admired dynamic creative class to a despised establishment of corrupt rentiers, an entrenched governing class unfit to govern."

We can see this in many, particularly, developing countries today. But even in the USA the disparities between those that have and have not are now becoming alarmingly apparent.

Sadly enough, today’s financial and political elite have put their interests first without regard for the many – with the underprivileged and masses growing more discontented every day – as the phrase goes – the wealthy becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer. Worse, today’s financial and political elites have become master opportunists and predatory parasites [Disaster Capitalism] bereft of social obligation for the common good of everyone.

This is how the cookie crumbles. As we have a growing elite that puts their interest ahead of others, amid an increasing discontent among the masses – what we have percolating is a perfect environment to ignite a revolution and off with their heads to borrow from Revolutionary France.

It happened during the French Revolution. It happened in Tsarist Russia. It happened more recently with Ceausescu and Romania. It has even happened in authoritarian South East Asia.

Another era ends. Another one begins. Welcome to our winter of discontent, desertion and moral decay.