Although I agree not a direct creation of "the ruling class" in the sense of the 1% wealthy, it's interesting to think about the Sociopaths in the classic RibbonFarm posts:
The Gervais Principle, Or The Office According to “The Office”
I think there's a degree of truth in that, especially in very bureaucratic organizations, but I think it's orthogonal to this discussion.
I did a stint in business consulting and rubbed elbows with a lot of certified 100% grade-A sociopaths. In my experience they were not deep thinkers or conceptual thinkers, and thus are actually unlikely to hatch deep long-term conspiracies of the sort that would result in an elite agenda to create make-work. They struck me as exceedingly shallow short-term thinkers who do a lot of bullshit posturing and a lot of social climbing. They don't analyze deeply. They look for opportunities for quick ascension via tactics like this:
The Gervais Principle, Or The Office According to “The Office”
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-o...