I recently ran across this blog post which mentions a very curious observation - people who are in power aren't smarter or more well informed than those below them. To quote:
But first, the three important things you must know when trying to analyze any actions of the government.
1. Within the government reign disorder and chaos. 90% of political decisions are the result of accident, coincidence, or spontaneous decisions influenced by short-term situations. Here I’m speaking not only of Russia’s government but of any government; just read any politicians’ memoirs, they describe it very well.
2. People in the Kremlin [i.e. government] are neither superior to you intellectually, nor better informed.
3. If you read just two trustworthy papers every morning and follow 2 to 5 more or less independent TV stations and news websites, and several journalists are on your Twitter reading list, then your level of awareness is just as good as Putin’s [the President of Russia].
The same applies to CEOs, religious leaders and others.