There is no such thing as Society

I find this phrase an interesting one.  It still makes quite a few people cross today, over 20 years after it first achieved public notoriety when used by Margaret Thatcher.  I do not want to enter into an esoteric debate about the value and meaning of the context of that comment, but it does strike me that the word Society may be misused more often that we realise.  It is easy to blame The Guardian -- partly of course because it may be that they bear some responsibility -- but I must admit to feeling some frustration when hearing the word society used to refer to any number of things just because they involve more than one person.  Community, population, populous, culture, zeitgeist, populace, general public...  the list goes on and on.  The word is also used to describe the upper classes, with the possibly humourously corollarific 'high society' referring to its more glamourous excesses.  I must confess I held the latter meaning to be the true one for a long time and so was doubly confused when I heard others that turned out to be so different and perhaps wrong.  Perhaps I am alone in this thought, I do not know.  Whom should I ask though?  Society?  The populace?