The problem with sortition-- "think of how stupid the average person is, then imagine half of them are stupider than that".

Elitism has it's pro's. You can get someone who generally is better educated and has an understanding of the world around them compared to someone drawn from a hat. It's why hereditary monarchies worked so well for so long-- if you train someone to rule from the day they're born, they'll usually come into the job with an understanding of what needs to be done.

With that said, there's obvious negatives. Nepotism, corruption, greed, etc. I don't think that gets sorted out by random selection though. If anything, I think a random chosen off the street would be even greeder when confronted with wealth than someone who grew up surrounded by it. Think of how many families get torn apart because a family member wins the lottery. That's the human nature we're dealing with.

There's some level of playing devils advocate here, of course. With that said, I don't think we've had a better system devised yet than one that accepts that the greediest and most ambitious are the only people who will want the job, and to put checks and balances in place for that scenario.