What, then, constitutes an elite? There are a variety of different ways of judging the 'cream' of any society, and given a bit of juggling, most people will fit into one version or another.

Elitism, ambition, competition and cliqueing are all human features - flaws or benefits, dependant on the circumstances, but it mainly goes 'I want to be better than you to do X, Y, Z'.

The bad reputations elites then get are largely from those incapable of attaining the membership requirements and getting left out of all that social prestige...