The purpose of a leader isn’t to enforce a hierarchy, it is to lead in a direction. Not to decide everything, but to decide where there is genuine ambiguity, when the answer isn’t clear: to make it clear.
Some direction is established by principles, some by circumstances, some by goals, and how all these are prioritized helps to decide. But, at the end of it all, with all the best information being gathered and synthesized by all the best people for their respective areas of expertise ranging from technical, to financial, to ethical, to political, etc. etc. there still needs to be interpretation of: what does that all mean to us.
And, ultimately, power should be flowing from the consent of the governed - the first 50.1% contra-coalition shouldn’t (usually) have the power to overthrow and install their replacement, but ultimately, at some intervals in time, at some levels of dis-approval, change is healthy and that change should be to the leading candidate which most represents the will of the governed.
Yet, we live in a world where “he who has the gold, makes the rules” and, so, we get these violent backlashes against authoritarianism when it is installed and maintained via power and money. As we should.