Lookup John todd of the Collins-todd bloodline. He alleged that Rand was the mistress of Pillip Rothschild, and that "John Galt" was based on him.
The whole idea of the book, the deeper esoteric meaning was the voluntary destruction of the old system, by the "enlightened rulers", letting the sheep decay in their own filth (socialistic despotism and corruption), only to be later "saved" by the "enlightened, illumined" rulers.
The phoenix symbolism is important, "out of the ashes of the old age, and the old world, a new age and a new world will be born".