Yep, and to be fair it's always been that way to some degree. The most recent generations just happened to live in an economic golden age where there was so mu

Yep, and to be fair it's always been that way to some degree. The most recent generations just happened to live in an economic golden age where there was so much economic opportunity there actually was more competition and meritocracy than the world had ever seen. Now we're receding back to something more resembling the mid-late 1800s, where aristocracy was a big deal and you had situations like the Imperial British military, where the enlisted soldiers were impeccable, but the blue-blood officers did things like carry pianos into combat zones, and caring about things like self-improvement was a sign of weakness socially.