You're missing the point of the "elite" term in the context of politicians; part of the point is precisely that they are not elite. There is no such thing as a biological ruling class. They're just folk. We're all just folk. The reason why the system built on that premise has, broadly speaking, worked better than its competition over the course of centuries is not just that it's a gloriously wonderfully nice thing to say, it is because it actually reflects reality better, and systems that reflect reality tend to work better than those built on a fundamental denial of some part of it. (And to the extent it is having trouble it very arguably can be blamed at least partially on the attempt to create a ruling class today.)