Does reestablishing moral and political economic nationalism depend on who the elites are?

Can we return to the trade policies of economic nationalism developed by our Founders, which converted the U.S. into the greatest industrial power in the history of the world? As the lone battler Pat Buchanan has said, corporate America bribed working America with cheap consumer goods in return for surrendering U.S. sovereignty, economic security and industrial primacy.

Does reestablishing economic nationalism depend on who the elites are? I am all for meritocracies but we have replaced the old WASP elite of the eastern establishment with a treacherous financial sector who have twisted the monetary system to dramatically increase incomes at the top and deeply cut incomes at the bottom (for those who even have jobs.) Simply put, the top has screwed the bottom in America. The WASPS of course were not perfect but at least they were taught the Protestant work ethic, frugality and moderation in their prep schools, colleges and universities.

The old classical conservative saying goes, as the people change, the culture changes, and that goes for economics too. With America increasingly split along apparently unassimilable ethnic lines, the only way I can see to bring moral and political health back to America is to return power to the different regions and states, where each state can bring their own distinct balance to economics, protected internally and externally by a light federalism. That is what the Founders wanted in any case. There seems to be no viable politicians now promoting economic nationalism and a return to the rights of the states, the neoconservatives have successfully blocked them---with much help from the pliant popular media. But if there still exists a will to survive in America this will probably change.