@freakazoid The tendency of technology to serve as a power multiplier *is* something that concerns me.
I'm not entirely convinced it's a universal tendency, and tech can absolutely disrupt *existing* powe centres.
It just seems to usually replace them with one even more powerful.
A possible counterexample is the devolution of monarchic power in England, starting with the Magna Carta, onwards. Generally to a wider class of nobility, but since ~19thc, also commoners.