I think the main tripping point for most people is the Feudal part - to most people, this means a nobility. Of course, they also view this nobility as part of a Top-Down system, where an ultimate lord gives control over sections of their property to successive layers of individuals, who then pass this control on to their descendants.
The other tripping point is the Technocracy - most to turn to wiki, which gives the definition of rule by people capable in technical fields.
The combination of the two is very confusing.

Really, Feudal is a method of organizing relationships of rule (thus, medieval Europe would be a Self-Perpetuating Oligarchy with a feudal organization restricted to members of the ruling class), based on loyalty supported by mutual obligation. The technocracy part can have its wiki definition ignored.
Looking at the original feudal technocracy described in Space Viking (the story), the feudal structure of loyalty and mutual obligation applies to every citizen, with governmental structure arising as an emergent property (when every other government code can be understood as an imposed structure - "go forth and do as I say, in my name" type of thing) of increased levels of feudal loyalty.
The technocracy part is reflected in the definition given by MWM - each party has specified obligations, usually labor or the resources provided by the labor of those under them, with the one who is being given loyalty has obligations of service of leadership to those underneath.

I could probably write an article. How many canon examples of described FTs do we have?

On February 17, 2018, at 10:47 AM, "Kelly St. Clair" <xxxxxx@efn.org> wrote:

IMO, FTs - and all the associated stuff with the Machinists Guild, the
Hydroponicists Guild, the Reactormen's Guild, etc etc - are something
that feels very last-century's-SF to me.  Then again, Traveller itself
seems (to me) more and more like a period piece with every passing year,
so I suppose that fits.  :/

--
---------------
Kelly St. Clair
xxxxxx@efn.org

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