I was wondering if there's much utility in reading and learning about the ways higher ups set up and/or manipulate the socio-economic systems. I personally feel

I was wondering if there's much utility in reading and learning about the ways higher ups set up and/or manipulate the socio-economic systems. I personally feel pretty much like a cog in the machine that can't really influence the machine overall, just play my part in it. I recently came across the book "Seeing like a state" in the podcast Balaji S did with Lex Fridman. Though it's intellectually interesting to learn about how the state works and what alternative think tanks propound (ex communism, libertarianism), delving into history I have found that things happen in really grand ways (i.e. an idea works only if there's a whole load of people behind it) and often these circumstances arise out of happenstance. Being a CS geek, I feel kind of pigeonholed into a role in society that learning about the state, economic theories etc feels unneeded and maybe even a waste of time. From history, it feels like it's the liberal arts or the army types that affect economic and geopolitical changes.