"We have a monarch (complete with dozens of hangers-on) AND we have a bunch of politicos who need entourages, etc."
.,,.
Why be naif & provocative just for the sake of it, Steve? Everyone in any position of power, political, commercial, academic, or whatever, has an 'entourage'; but when did you ever see our Prime Minister, the de facto head of our government, driven anywhere in the sort of glorious ostentation of the motorcades that presidents in 'democratic republics', incl the USA, regularly allocate themselves to prove their status ~~ or even, except on certain long-entrenched special state occasions which still never really compete with those anyhow, our Queen either, for that matter?

~M~