I'm not assuming.

I have a wide knowledge of history from Sumerian times onwards, and the dynamic is very easy to see.
Hierarchies cause centralization of power.

When the hierarchy becomes a dominant structure (a bureaucratic one) it usurps the original meritocratic hierarchy one - then corruption of power follows.
(it seems to repeat itself in a continuous cycle...as the meritocratic get corrupted by the sociopath manipulators)..