An Uncanny Moat

This is already happening. We just call them "influencers" or "YouTubers". These are still technically real people, but they're real people playing a sanitized character while appearing/claiming some degree of authenticity. They are actual photographed humans, but often wildly digitally retouched to be more beautiful than any actual person.

And people increasingly are replacing real relationships with parasocial relationships with these complete strangers. It's understandable: like junk food, it satisfies an immediate craving with no real effort on the part of the consumer. But long-term, it is deeply unhealthy.

Or, kings, priests, etc.

They get good NPC lines too: I heard that when the Queen of England went shopping in some random high street, she was told by the cashier that she looked just like the Queen, to which she (presumably in cut-glass) replied, "How very reassuring".

Not sure I appreciate a recent demagogue (whose listeners sanitise instead of letting handlers do so?) counterexample to:

— You know what happens when politicians get into Number 10; they want to take their place on the world stage.

— People on stages are called actors. All they are required to do is look plausible, stay sober, and say the lines they're given in the right order.

— Some of them try to make up their own lines.

— They don't last long.