The Network State has long ago matured. A brilliant up to date article.

http://thenetworkstate.com/

Since when have the "people" had control over anything?
The elites in all times and places have always acted to consolidate and extend their power and control. The "people", that is the masses of ordinary people were always just dispensable canon fodder in the (inevitable) blood-soaked power games of the elites in all times and places.
The very dark Madeleine Albright summed up the situation with her dismissive/flippant comment re how the mass casualties of the power-and-control-seeking misadventures of the US in Iraq were worth it.

Meanwhile the casualties from that misadventure keep piling up in the never-ending "war on terror". And even just from the effects of depleted uranium bombs and shells alone.

Meanwhile why read the essay by Michael Hudson titled Sovereignty In Crisis Israel Palestine & America' Agenda.