powers that be (?.)

• John Bull
• Rasputin
• Svengali
• Uncle Sam
• Washington
• Whitehall
• access
• bad influence
• big wheel
• bureaucracy
• court
• directorate
• eminence grise
• five-percenter
• friend at court
• good influence
• gray eminence
• heavyweight
• hidden hand
• hierarchy
• higher echelons
• higher-ups
• holdover
• incumbent
• influence
• influence peddler
• influencer
• ingroup
• ins
• jack-in-office
• key
• kingmaker
• lame duck
• lobby
• lobbyist
• lords of creation
• man of influence
• management
• manipulator
• ministry
• new broom
• office-bearer
• officeholder
• officialdom
• open sesame
• prelacy
• president-elect
• pressure group
• public official
• public servant
• ruling class
• ruling classes
• sinister influence
• special interests
• special-interest group
• the Crown
• the Establishment
• the administration
• the authorities
• the government
• the ingroup
• the interests
• the people upstairs
• the power elite
• the power structure
• the top
• them
• they
• top brass
• very important person
• wheeler-dealer
• wire-puller