Agree. I don't have much to add. Except that modern bureaucrats are mere knockoffs of the aristocracies of the past, they want to sell themselves as different but in a sense that only makes them worse.

Power is always, in some way, destructive, so it is always smart to be careful of abusing it. If you have power and use it, you will probably end up losing it. That is what happens with tyrants. If, on the contrary, the powerful don't use their power, it is likely that it will increase. It is an illusion. That is why Lao Tzu advised the rulers to rule through inaction, letting things take their course, and causing everything to be redirected. It is the desire to control everything that drives the bureaucrats to despotism.

A powerful person is the slave of his fear fantasies and he fears nothing so much as the loss of his identity, which is all he has.

I think they are the most scared because they have the most to lose. The poor are poor and that's it, but the rich fear being poor. The people are not afraid of being ruled, but the rulers fear losing power. They are in the most delicate position and most difficult to maintain, it is likely that they are fighting tooth and nail every day to maintain power.

It's like you say, without their identity they have nothing.