Can't give upvotes, but +1 for this insightful framing. The "Police and thieves in the street" problem as I call it, is that in most discussions we hear about

Can't give upvotes, but +1 for this insightful framing. The "Police and thieves in the street" problem as I call it, is that in most discussions we hear about the two big noisy players duking it out for control. In reality it's a three way struggle. By far the largest and most powerful group is often completely silent and omitted from the analysis. "Consumers" or "Voters" (although I would prefer the term "people") are subsumed into the other camps, each claiming to "represent" the people. Yet the silent, overwhelming majority are starting to reclaim a voice of their own. This is a worrying sign. Not because people shouldn't have a voice, but because it shows clearly that at best, governments and commercial markets are failing to represent the actual interests of people. Perhaps we've become complacent allowing plurality of power structures, unions, assemblies, societies etc to weaken?