I don’t think there’s anything inevitable in Earth history, except the Sun going red giant. Just because regular people clawed back some power against the robber barons doesn’t mean it could be done again in our time, with all the differences in technology.

Technology is a force multiplier. Not just for military/violent force, but for speech and the control of information as well. It’s not an anomaly that people keep re-electing the same incumbents over and over again.

The wealthy are leveraging more and more power while also undermining future generations, destroying education and social mobility. We may end up in a situation not too different from North Korea, where the millions starve and a handful live in opulence, enforced by a brutal military police state empowered by weaponry, mass surveillance, and AI.