Why the Lizard People are destined to fail

For an elite to maintain power, they must have knowledge that those they control do not. They may pretend to even more knowledge than they have, and usually do, but they MUST be convincing. It’s necessary to be seen as serving an important purpose. It’s important that the ruled have less knowledge than the rulers in order to maintain social stability.
The naivety enforced upon the ruled lends to the occurrence of various forms of magical thinking with attendant irrationality. It’s this irrationality that destabilizes things, especially as it diminishes fear. A population of fearless, resentful fanatics is quite difficult to suppress.
Even with spy-ware and computers, the self-incrimination of income taxes, store membership cards and enrollments, and a watchful mega-bureaucracy, the elite fail to well regulate. They’re too busy golfing, yachting and pretending to positions of power they haven’t competency for. When the public is too poor and discouraged to do as ‘leadership’ hopes, wars cannot be won, crime can’t be contained, and the economy stalls. Motivation disappears. Alternatives people turn to may well not be realistic, but they’re sought out anyway. Mismanaged sources of wealth dry up. Poorly organized barbarians from the outer limits become a real threat.
It has happened before, with the Roman, Angkor/Khom, Malian, Aztec, Spanish, Mogul, and Russian empires (among others), and seems destined to happen again, seems almost a cycle of nature. Pride increasing until the inevitable crumble and fall.