No it isn't only a top-down analysis.

The dipshits on the bottom only care about having power over other people. The people at the top know that if they give the reactionaries one rung from the bottom shit on someone lower than them then they'll be a reliable base. The people in government don't care one bit about gay marriage, trans rights, Christian supremacy (well, most of them don't), abortion, etc. They throw that out as red meat to their voters so that it reinforces the hierarchy. It's always been this way. Look at the southern white population before the US civil war: most of them were not slaves owners, but the social hierarchy favored them over the black population so they were content to have pseudo-aristocrats dominating the political space.

Like I said: conservatives only care about power, and their preferred tool is a rigid social hierarchy.