'We didn't elect them. We can't throw them out. And they're getting more powerful every day.'

From: The deciders you don't elect

Call them the superclass.

Americans fixated on the political campaign may be missing a reality of the global era that may matter much more than their presidential choice: On an ever-growing list of issues, the big decisions are being made or profoundly influenced by a little-understood international network of business, financial, government, cultural and military leaders who are beyond the reach of American voters.

In addition to top officials, these people include corporate executives, leading investors, top bankers, media moguls, heads of state, generals, religious leaders, heads of terrorist and criminal organizations and a handful of important cultural and scientific figures. Each of these roughly 6,000 individuals is set apart by his or her power and ability to regularly influence millions of lives across international borders.

'Convening power'

Doubt it? Just look at the current financial crisis. As government regulators have sought to head off further market losses, they've found that perhaps the most effective tool at their disposal is what the president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank described to me as their "convening power" - their ability to get the big boys of Wall Street and world financial capitals into a room or on a conference call to collaborate on solving a problem.

This has, in fact, become a central part of crisis management, both because national governments have limited regulatory authority over global markets and because financial flows have become so large that the real power lies with the biggest players - such as the top 50 financial institutions that control almost $50 trillion in assets, by one measure nearly a third of all assets worldwide.