Maybe they should invite Musk to become chair and help appoint an entirely new board.
They are elected by shareholders. I wonder how much mutual and hedge fund managers get paid for their proxy votes? They are the ones who hold the most equity in public corporations and they get to vote on behalf of their investors. So the folks at Morgan Stanley, Blackrock, Vanguard, etc. Since most small investors who hold stocks never send in their proxy votes, the fund managers have even more say. I bet that "say" isn't cheap.