Maybe, but things seem much more hierarchically organized as you go farther back, with a progression of autocratic control over a growing area until a collapse

Maybe, but things seem much more hierarchically organized as you go farther back, with a progression of autocratic control over a growing area until a collapse or invasion. So, we know about Imhotep, official Architect to (IIRC) two or more successive pharaohs. Presumably, whatever he says goes, subject to the pharaoh's and then the priesthood's non-negotiables. Also presumably, he has underlings who make less consequential decisions. After he dies or falls from grace, his choices might be revisited. Then we have insular groups and guilds, such as the priesthood, the masons they depended upon, post-flood re-surveyors, canal and irrigation specialists, metalworkers, carpenters, navigators, potters, and scribes, each with its own governance conventions.