Capitalism was
invented to manage the slaver's business model in the US, so as long as "the elite" is defined to include the economic class of slavers, the US groups the super-rich and the mere business successes largely within a single discourse. I see this as an aspirational application of hyperdescent[1] by the slavers to elevate themselves in the US's emerging power structure, since I highly doubt the (pre-existing) super-rich would have said "the violent hicks? Yeah they're with us" as the US's self-conception was developing.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperdescent
