Goldstein, The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism (1948) has a description of the game which agrees with Veblen, Luttwak, Bueno de Mesquita & Smit

Goldstein, The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism (1948) has a description of the game which agrees with Veblen, Luttwak, Bueno de Mesquita & Smith, and probably a few others over the last five thousand years. If the mid wishes a circulation of elites, they must ally with the low against the high; if the high wishes to prevent this, they can ally with the low against the mid. A crucial point on which Goldstein, Squealer, and the 2 Ronnies, agree is that no matter which way these alliances are sorted in theory, somehow in practice the low always wind up more or less where they started. > Oh, it's the meek! Blessed are the meek! Oh, that's nice, isn't it? I'm glad they're getting something, 'cause they have a hell of a time. —Mrs. BN