The elites are fucked in a societal collapse. The question in the article "how do I pay my guards without money?" Sums it up pretty well...
Without money, you pay for the skilled output of others with skilled output of your own. The skill of brokering is still useful, but if that's literally all you got, you got problems :)
The post apocalyptic "elite" are the guys that can macguyver the fuck out of stuff :)