The logical response is to reframe the debate beyond the assumptions being built into their models.

In reality this conflict between top down and bottom up has gone on since the dawn of civilization.

Monotheism was adopted as a form of top down control. The original one world government globalism. The Ancients were not ignorant of it, but as there was no clear distinction between culture and civics, it equated with monocultural authoritarianism. One people, one ruler, one god.

Democracy and republicanism originated in pantheistic cultures, as that was the original conception of the multicultural cosmopolitan societies that developed as civilization evolved from tribal societies to states.

The Romans adopted Christianity as the empire solidified and any remnants of the republic were shed. Though vestiges of pantheism remained, with the Trinity.

When the West went back to these more populist forms of government, it required the separation of church and state, culture and civics.

I could go on, but I tried writing a bit of this out;

https://medium.com/predict/peeling-the-paradigm-1ceab7e774b0

The larger point is that if the elites really want to crash the system, there are ways to generate far more blowback than they are considering. Not the least of which is that when the ecosystem crashes, the top of the foodchain is in as much trouble, if not more, than the bottom.

Reality is a two way street. More yin and yang, than God Almighty.