What makes you think monks have no authority? I haven't been to Burma but I've been to Thailand which also practices theravada and monks are given an extreme amount of deference. You aren't supposed to talk back to them, when giving food in the morning to the monks you are supposed to bow and not make eye contact, monks are even included with pregnant women and the disabled as people with reserved seating on public transportation. The airports had many seats showing that they were for the elderly, pregnant, or monks only regardless of the monks age.
The locals did seem to treat it as more deference to the station than the person, I met someone who had been a monk and quit three times and his family treated him as a monk when he was a monk and as a regular guy when he wasn't. Beyond all that there are still obvious cults of personality where different monks gain a following that can be quite fervent.