Power of the state comes from its ability to engage in coercion and hence generally it is true that you can't expect to have a country without someone at the top with power to beat up the citizens into submission.

But generally the warlords are powerful only to the extent the underlying nation is engaging in extensive co-operation and wealth creation out of their free will. Nations are truly created by those ordinary people.

I am reminded of a powerful Indian tyrant named Muhammad Bin Tughlaq. He for some reason decided to move his capital to a different geographical area. By moving he literally wanted to move everything including the people to this new geographical area. Not only he failed miserably his name Tughlaq is synonymous with "idiotic behaviour high on power".