Korah and his cohorts felt this way too, saying to Moses: "You have gone far enough, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is in their midst; so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?" (Num 16:3) Moses's reply is telling: "Is it not enough for you ...? Are you seeking for the priesthood also?" (Num 16:9-10)
The Bible is clear that God placed Moses in charge of that people. He was obviously a spiritual leader and followed scripture, seeing as how he wrote it down. :) I hope I would have followed God through Moses in those days.
Then, Moses' time was done and authority was passed to Joshua, and so on and so on. It didn't take long for the whole nation to fall into grave sin under thoroughly corrupt leaders. Isn't it interesting that the concept of papal succession UTTERLY failed in the OT according to the Bible. God approves of leaders who are accountable to the body of believers, but He openly spoke against the idea of kings (one man with ultimate authority). It appears that at some point, the Latins thought they could improve on what the Jews had done. Perhaps they believed that man's fundamental nature had changed.
-A8