Yes, there are studies and I think they're great and largely valid, but there are also rebuttals (easily findable). At the end of the day, I don't think these

Yes, there are studies and I think they're great and largely valid, but there are also rebuttals (easily findable). At the end of the day, I don't think these assessments can be proven or disproven by theoretical models and numerical analysis. It's not like trying to establish the effect of a certain kind of monetary policy. It's more a matter of understanding the basic ideology on which the country runs (even as many aspects of American society do change over time, for example in regard to racial/social tolerance, appetite for foreign intervention, etc). On top of broad-scale character observation, in terms of what seems to make people really tick (and to make so many of them get so caught up in things like their guns, their pet conspiracy theories, or in their idea of some lost "greatness" that America supposedly once had, in ways that do end up moving the needle on the larger political stage, but which aren't simply the outcome of a coin-op lobbying system, gerrymandering or a muzzled press, i.e. the levers of influence that oligarchs typically work through, though of course they do get to lean on these levers and they do have disproportionate influence). As to "deep state" -- sorry, no sources and it's an entirely unscientific assessment as well. Plenty of people have written about it though, and their stuff is easy to find also.