https://rationalreminder.ca/podcast/220
This is an interview with two academic researchers into active fund managers who can indeed beat the market consistently sometimes. One factor why they exist is that they have access to better information than the average individual investor. However, (1) excess returns tend to mostly get absorbed by higher fees and (2) it's very difficult to scale it up, funds who beat the market tend to lose this edge when more funds go into them. Thus, market-beating funds, if they want to maintain their edge, have to severely limit who can invest in the fund and how much they can put into it.
The episode also goes into the effect of security selection (which stocks are picked) vs market timing, which is relevant to TFA.