Roman à clef

In a roman à clef, the fictional characters and events represent real people and events, perhaps in a fanciful way or a fictionalized setting: Jack Kerouac, On the Road; anonymous (Joe Klein), Primary Colors. In an allegory, the fictional characters and events represent ideas, concepts, and groups rather than real individuals: Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince; John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress.

You know, in a brief introduction to 'Animal Farm', the story was introduced as an allegory, and the characters were matched to real ones. That's why I asked that.

Aha! These things are never quite as neat in life as they are in academia. I would concur that Animal Farm is an allegory despite the ability to identify some of the characters with figures in history. In my opinion, a true roman a clef would have less in the way of general concepts and characters and more specific references.

The concepts of power and corruption outshine the specific references from historical inspiration. The point is not how specific people became corrupt, but rather that this progression is universal.

So it seems hard for a clef to stay clef because a work that is worthwhile will almost always say something larger than the characters in it.
You mention Kerouac's Road as clef, but it's the anthem of a whole subculture (or it became that in spite of whatever was his intention.)
What about Obama's Dreams? While totally tied down to earth with micro-details about real humans, it is nothing if not a massively ambitious ...whatever.