The transformation unfolds over years, and at every step, those in power capture the next increment. Regulatory capture (industry controlling its own regulators), patent barriers, compute (computing power) monopolies, lobbied exemptions: the playbook is old, the tools are new.
The delegation ratchet (each handoff to AI harder to reverse) does the rest. As individuals and institutions hand off decisions to AI systems they don't control, the ability to challenge the hierarchy atrophies. By the time the singularity is complete, the power structure is unrecognizable from a century ago and yet entirely familiar: a small class owns the means of production, and the means of production now include superintelligence.