Yes really. There were of course wealthy families that had business interests looked after, but nothing like today where you have corporations whose power eclip

Yes really. There were of course wealthy families that had business interests looked after, but nothing like today where you have corporations whose power eclipses the state and calls the shots. The lack of parties is even more black and white, those alliances did not exist at all. Advancement in their political system was based on individual accomplishments and if anything they were incentivized to sabotage each other, which is one problem they had.