I remember Falk saying something along the lines of
here we have these wealthy, powerful people with the whole world at their fingertips. In a material way they have everything that one could possibly want, they are god's chosen..but it's not enough, they still want more. It's their fatal weakness and in the end their downfall.
Without getting to Karl Marx here I would say the clash between classes is probably the single major reason I love Columbo so much.