Great comment!

But to add to this, I think there could be, and sometimes even were, someone at the wheel of the capitalist system. This is the purpose of the US government. At some points in its history, it had people who were willing to moderate the tragedy of the commons enough for the bourgeoisie to benefit long-term by being forced to make short-term concessions (think FDR).

However, this is one of those cases where the base eventually overpowered the superstructure. The underlying law of capitalism (namely that of exponential capital accumulation) selects and/or bribes politicians to allow capitalists unlimited short-term profit maximization; after all, capitalists who don't bribe their way are eventually outcompeted, stripped of their capital, and replaced by those who do.

Ironically, this short-term maximization of profits lowers the long-term stability of the system itself, and gives us a path to destroy the system eventually.