I find it a bit disturbing how this focuses on people in power's attitude, and not on the mass of people's behavior, like if fascism was something a handful of people put in place and the rest of us had nothing to do with/about it.

Well, I'm certainly not an historian, so this is just my two cents, but it seems to me that the very core of fascism is anger and defiance. And believing just a few people can make history (thus, the exaggeration of the leader role).