<p>The United States became a much more equal society between (roughly) 1940 and 1970, then reversed course to become a much less equal society between (roughly) 1980 and 2010. Mark Mizruchi offers an explanation for these trends in "The Power of Fragmented Elites." Shorn of all nuance, the core of Mizruchi's argument is that a unified elite would bend democracy toward its will, but in fact a fragmented elite forms a less obvious target for popular action against it, and is thus is actually more able to work its will than a unified one. This theory is perfectly reasonable, but as with any theory, there are reasons to doubt it. Mizruchi claims (based on a mountain of empirical literature) that the American elite fragmented after the 1970s. But has the American elite fragmented since the record low inequality decade of the 1970s? This note raises the possibility that this stylized fact is simply incorrect, offering an alternative interpretation of inequality trends based on an alternative set of stylized facts about the integration of American elites.</p>