> aren't we really saying voters are not individual agents but rather a mob subject to manipulation by propaganda?

Yes, exactly.

A symbiotic view of life: we have never been individuals https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235518850_A_Symbiot...

I have it on personal experience that DARPA seems to be enthusiastically funding more digital twin and collective intelligence projects than ever. Simulated virtual publics are going to become more common in both war and politics. Collectives are going to be the driving force of the coming century, and the sooner the American public evolves beyond fetishizing the individual, the better.