Governing families..... Not royalty, but it is sort of, in everything but name!
A truly equal society would assume that we all have equal starting points. Hoever, that isn't the case... And I'm not sure that I would want that either...
But without the will to limit these differences in starts, we can't approach a more equal society... However, I say this as an Australian living in Europe. From the outside, US seems to do things much worse than the countries that I'm familiar with. Which leads me to wonder why other countries want to emulate the American model completely... There are things that are good, but we can see what doesn't work!
Equality can't mean equal starting points. People are unique. I mused on this a while ago. However, the principle that everyone is equal before the law and the law exists only to protect against violations of life, liberty, and property has been made into a laughingstock for anyone who understands both the sales pitch and reality of America.
Agreed, flat equality would be horrific in its own right. However, as far as I see from outside, the United States is not even close to that! It as you say, the discrepancy between the ideal and the reality is quite stark.
However, change does mean losers... And everyone is keen to protect what they have, even if it is at the cost of a potentially better future.
And those who rely on political plunder, including welfare recipients, corporate cronies, and government employees, all see their shares of tax extortion as a right in a complete perversion of the concept of rights. They have no incentive to real progress, and the leviathan state instead seeks to seduce more and more people into thinking they are net beneficiaries of the system.