I don't buy that. Washington could exercise control when he wanted to: e.g. the Militia Act 1792.

"Old Boy Network" is a term frequently used over here - generally referring back to the public/private schools the men in power went to ("Old Boys"). But what I'm reading is that the routes to power here and there are very similar, despite one being a monarchy and the other a republic.

(Btw, for the avoidance of doubt, a public school is not the same thing as a state school over here. A public school is a school established with a charitable purpose (to educate the rich and privileged) while a private school is a business enterprise (educating the less well-connected) for profit.)