Capital could never be directly translated into power. Capital always had to be used to buy enough people who combined had power. Those people could refuse to be bought and instead join those without capital on moral reasons. Even as technology allowed us to use capital to increase the power of a small group of people, there still had to be a small group of people.
But we are soon to hit a point where capital will be used to buy power directly thanks to advances in AI and robotics. We may never again have another cycle like you describe.
To be honest, I fear this, because I consider it likely enough to fear, but I don't think it's the most likely outcome by a big margin.
If you want to know the probable outcome of an Intelligent Capital vs. The People fight, just look how a big company defends its computer network against targeted hackers today.
