I wonder if what we&#x27;re seeing is a quantitative change leading to a qualitative change.<p>It&#x27;s undeniable that old people have always held power in society, from hunting-gathering societies (various elders&#x2F;shamans&#x2F;wisepeople) through early civilization (Senator comes from the Latin &quot;senex&quot; for &quot;old&quot;. Senatus = &quot;chamber of old men&quot;), though to today.<p>At the same time, their numbers (and effectiveness) were probably limited, either by a more pyramidal population distribution and&#x2F;or by lower life expectancy (including duller minds in older age).<p>I think what we&#x27;re seeing for the first time in history is a huge swath of healthy, long-lived older people, throwing the relative balance way off and leading to various situations we see across many different societies.<p>I like to sum it up as Boomers eating the young and I don&#x27;t think things will change until the numbers&#x2F;demographics do, ie, Millenials will experience a lost generation and things won&#x27;t start to look good until we&#x27;re well into middle-age.