Society has actualy evolved beyond the individual humans' ability to concieve of the big picture. The masses can be seen as the worker ants recieving behavioural orders from those who have more power who may or may not be intellectuals...Intellectuals are used by those with power to amass more power but also to make sure the workers stay happy and productive.

We are not limited to one particular role throughout our lives..we can assume a power role or an intellectual role (and many more) as we evolve individualy..due to proportional mathematics there will always be a similair amount of each category but problems arise when they get out of synch..to see the effects of these changes in a countries social structure you can monitor their stock market figures and gross national income etc.

The machine will descend into chaos if any one value of the system ceases to function..however such disasters tend to be self repairing see 'revolutions'.
When one system impinges upon another both can be thrown into chaos see 'war', 'famine', 'pestilence', 'death'...In the end what matters is not the opinions of the masses or the intellectuals but those who control them..and when I say 'The end' no matter how dramatic these words sound we are only ever weeks away from a complete collapse of all known social units into anarchy..all we need is one man to think he can make decisions for his country without consulting either the intellectuals or the masses.