Seems more like a placeholder. I think George Carlin got it right in his stand-up, you don’t need a secret society when multiple individuals desires naturally converge. Wealth and power typically dissipates after a few generations so for a family to stay wealthy and powerful drastic measures must be taken. So if you have a wealthy family who has substantial control over media and one over political processes and another over manufacturing or refining their goals to maintain wealth and power naturally align without any rituals needed.