Turnout at Davos was lousy this year. President Trump, preoccupied with the government shutdown, was a no-show at last week’s World Economic Forum there. So were British Prime Minister Theresa May (Brexit) and French President Emmanuel Macron (gilets jaunes, or the “yellow vest” protests). Chinese President Xi Jinping, Davos’s 2018 star, and Russian President Vladimir Putin weren’t there either. Neither were some of the usual financial and media big names.

From all of which you might get the impression that the world’s political, financial, and media elites have lost much of their prestige these days. Which of course they have.