And the rise of vast, globe-spanning corporate empires with hundreds of thousands of employees has left many folk isolated in small work groups run by managers who care only about their particular fiefs.
Mr Mehsud's fief, in particular, is reported to have become a hub for Pakistani and foreign jihadist terrorists.
Nassau County in particular is saturated with government fiefs and regulatory agencies and zoning boards.
These include arrogance bred of dominance of a particular area mainframe computers at IBM, personal computers at Microsoft and internal fiefs that hamper swift change.
And they are currently unhappy with big brother, whom they accuse of ignoring their advice in particular, over Mr Bhattacharjee's brave, but messy, pro-business policies and of encroaching on their fiefs.
The European Parliament was right to chastise this body, the commission, and in particular the two commissioners who have done so little to end corruption and mismanagement in their fiefs (see article).
To finance these new military formations and, in particular, to pay the Turkish commanders who headed them, the caliphs began to give them administrative grants (iqṭāʿ in Arabic, usually translated, albeit inaccurately, "fief") consisting of tax revenues from certain territories.
That is now Mr Xi's fief.
He then ran it as his fief.
Perpetuation of leadership concentration within this particular family shows a near dictatorial hold of the family and its inner circle of sycophants on the party machinery and makes this old and largest party of the world's largest democracy look like a dynastic fief.
