The whole concept of the necessity of the existence of the religious elites to make people understand the Quran is a fallacious one. That was true when the majority of the people could not read but now considering that most of the people can read we do not really need those guys in their traditional forms. Good translators and literature experts are needed more a million times. In Quran at the end of the Sura of Smoke (Ad Dokhan) it is explicitly affirmed that Quran has been created simple for people to understand (in arabic though) so that people can use it. If clergies have been using Quran for their own purpose by interpreting the clear messages into not really clear populist propaganda is again related to the unavailability of a nice simple translation that people can use. For me the language is the most important barrier not the clarity of the messages.