What third alternative?” Said Chang with the dream-like air of a man who finds himself doing the impossible. “They gave it to us,” said the Machine. - John Brunner

It’s the social counterpart of natural selection. Those groups within society that craved power at the expense of everything else — morality, self-respect, honest friendship — they achieved dominance long ago. The mass of the public no longer has any contact with government; all they know is that if they step out of line they’ll be trodden on.

there’s an ingrained distrust in our society of highly intelligent, highly trained, highly competent persons. One need only look at the last presidential election for proof of that. The public obviously wanted a figurehead, who’d look good and make comforting noises —

First we had the legs race. Then we had the arms race. Now we're going to have the brain race. And, if we're lucky, the final stage will be the human race.