you could probably get a solid black mirror episode out of a stratospherically wealthy character surrounded by such levels of sycophancy that their day-to-day experience resembles insanity

There’s a short story about a CEO who is “imprisoned” by his AI/VR assistant and when his exec team tries to get him out, they discover that he doesn’t want to leave Let me see if I can find it

Oh, that's an old, old story. Not a billionaire, but pretty much the same dynamic. Try "Twilight Zone:" www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zcd...

Twilight Zone: It's A Good Life

YouTube video by TV Gold HD

Every authoritarian ever, it’s why they usually fuck up!

Also seemingly being treated as a ‘too big to fail’ entity by much more powerful forces like the US Government.

Or people doing 'free' stuff for you. Don't like your 12 houses? Gone, changed. What did it cost you, other than just to say the word? No sense of gravity of what can or should be done.

This is a big part of why Putin is the way he is, and is true for basically any authoritarian leader 10+ years into their rule. Everyone *has* to lie to them in order we to survive, so they often know even less than their subordinates