When they talk about "the elites" they are talking about a cabal and yes, it does exist. Vanguard and Blackrock created this environment by simply owning more real estate (via other companies) than anyone else. This, combined with their ESG score, is absolutely toxic to "the little guy". They tell their constituent publicly held companies that they're losing big on real estate and the next day 2,000 articles on the reason remote work is terrible come out. This is further compounded by one of the major avenues of reaping back money from startups is VC owned property. There isn't conspiracy here. Blackrock in particular is
well known as a major buyer of real estate holding companies.
Expand that from strictly finance to other facets of life and you'll fine similar cabals. Groceries? Yep. News? Yep. They do exist, and it's not simply self interested self-made individuals at the helm. They are a product, not the genesis, of the very real so-called Illuminati you occasionally hear about.
EDIT: Fastest downvotes in the west wow. Open-minded HN showing their open-minded progressive mindset again.