Being 'free' without being a member of an elite class is an anomaly within human history - by extension, so is the concept of an economic middle class.

It's mostly been lords and vassals, haves and have-nots throughout recorded history. And frankly it's sadly unsurprising that millennia of learned behavior would win out over a few hundred years of going against the grain.

I earnestly think it ties somewhat into the tribalistic mentality that humans are drawn towards: gotta follow the collective, gotta listen to the chief.

Once you recognize that most people are pre-disposed, arguably by design, to be sheep, what's happening is no surprise.