An understandable hypothesis, but not so fast...
"I would rather be governed by the first 1000 people listed in the telephone directory, than by the Harvard University faculty." -Wm F. Buckley
What on earth was he getting at? Examining one of the most vivid examples, take a look at the rise (and fall) of the Third Reich. The thought leaders driving that movement weren't the disenfranchised plebes, not by a long shot: it was the intelligentsia, the intellectual elite, PhDs, professors, doctors, lawyers--they were the ones nodding along to the rail cars, "showers", and brutal empire building.
Same thing is germinating today, on University campuses, hospital systems, corporate governing boards.