There's been a recent influx of this sort of discussion in Britain. Most of it seems to be, at the core, the elites' (and those who would like to style themselves as elites) attempts to justify their disillusionment with democracy, which the referendum result caused. It's amazing how quickly people turn on the idea of giving the everyman a say in government, when it gives them the result they don't like. The referendum was a rare example in Britain of where the result wasn't able to be hand-waved away, like is typical with FPTP elections. The result was so significant because it saw the majority of the public reject all the major parties' platforms on the issue, and --I think-- undermined the pretenses of a lot of those in power, who like to frame themselves as being "of the people". Hence the disillusion.

A lot of the discussion reminds me of the arguments put forward by the hereditary peers in the late 90s, before most of them were chucked out of the House of Lords: that their experiences and positions in society made them uniquely able to make important decisions about the country. It's all rather ironic.