Power brokers

There are 3 main axes of Power: Political authority, Capital, and information. The first is the most formal and traditional (politicians, high ranking government employees). The second type is the most durable and scalable (Owners with control over key resources). The third has everything to do with influence and intelligence gathering (the media, intelligence agencies and private data collection).

Power brokers operate at the intersection of the three. They are the central node in the system, they have connections to key people in each of the three spheres. Since people with each type of power constantly need each other, they rely on the power broker, and just like any type of broker he profits massively in the process. Power brokers amass huge amounts of non-monetary debts and make those around them dependent on them. They are so entrenched in the system that getting rid of them becomes impossible and bypassing them becomes too costly. They also have a knack for sensing the shifting tides and switching sides just at the right time. They have no true ideological leaning or alliances and so they outlive the figureheads.

Kissinger, Talleyrand, Roy Cohn, Robert Moses, or by extension Larry Fink, Peter Theil and the Rothschilds in the 19th century all embody this archetype.