The Age of Over-Abundant Elites
The problem isn't that we've hit some sort of Neo-Malthusian "Limits to Growth", it's something called "Elite Overpopulation".
While we're very happy to have you in the Gulch and appreciate your wanting to fully engage, some things in the Gulch (e.g. voting, links in comments) are a privilege, not a right. To get you up to speed as quickly as possible, we've provided two options for earning these privileges.
What is even more dangerous, they become enthralled and even addicted to its acquisition even though the methods they employ to that end usually don't involve wealth creation but merely wealth redistribution. Thus when you have a growing populace but a stagnant wealth pool, it does turn into a fight among the "elites" for this wealth because those elites have no concept of a pie that grows through hard work and can satisfy everyone - they have only the notion of a fixed pie being carved up into smaller and smaller pieces. It's a self-destructive and societally destructive attitude.
I COMPLETELY agree that people who have to work for a living have less time and inclination to ascend to power. And it is a huge problem in today's world of politics. Look at just about every prominent politician out there and they came from money and connections to more money. You put it quite well in noting "the current “unearned”wealth transfer system amplifies the parasitic mindset in some people."
If we the People show any courage then the payments to the "elite" will be at the end of a rope or a hail of bullets against a wall.
That is what they have earned and deserve.