I don't think the issue is brainy people doing those jobs per se, it's brainy people spending years and a small fortune for a degree, and then end up performing

I don't think the issue is brainy people doing those jobs per se, it's brainy people spending years and a small fortune for a degree, and then end up performing that kind of work anyways. I would guess working class white people in the 1950s US were overall more content than today, even though many fewer of them had college degrees. They were happy performing "sustenance work", because they were able to start those jobs out of high school, support a family, buy a house, etc. (Massive caveat for the people who were excluded from this system back then.)