Exactly. I guess that I should have clarified - leaders are rarely attacked directly by other leaders. There are thankfully many instances where the leaders were executed not by other leaders, but by the "led". It used to be said that one has to "cut the head off the snake" - so why wouldn't Putin simply either bomb Kiev directly or assassinate Zelenskyy at one of his very numerous public appearances? Why doesn't Iran simply bomb the Knesset?

Your conclusions are exactly the same as mine. With every giant advance in productivity, the "led" are promised less work and more wealth, but it seems to me that every dollar gained goes only to the "leaders" and that the ranks of the "poor" only grow.

I agree completely with your view. The problem is leadership as a concept. The Declaration of Independence declared that "all men are created equal", and then those same signers went about creating a government that would put rulers in place, enshrining the same ruling class that they themselves decried in the DoI.