There's a great part in the book 1984 where they talk about how the elite 1% control everything and 85% are just living off the scraps. The remaining 14% see themselves as prospective elites, though they live only marginally better than the 85%. The elites promise that if only they defend the 1% hard enough, and do everything they're told they should do, then one day they might be let into the elite crowd.
I think George Orwell was describing centrists as that 14%. The defenders of the status quo.