Yes, there is a correlation with elitism.  However, all human communities need some form of governance, so elitism/clericalism can be mitigated, but not completely eliminated.  I believe in my heart that the ordination of women to the sacramental priesthood is the best way to mitigate elitism/clericalism in the Church.  PATRIARCHY is the most nefarious form of elitism, and the most universal, because it creates a superior/inferior divide in the human race down the middle.  RELIGIOUS PATRIARCHY is even worse, because it divides the entire body of Christ down the middle.  The 1917 Code of Canon Law still prescribed that men and women should be separately seated in church, a canon that I never saw enforced and was mercifully deleted in the 1983 code.  In other religious institutions, it is still mandatory for men and women to pray separately.  But we still have canon 1024... God have mercy!