That is a big, huge question and issue to try to tackle in a comment. From my perspective, it's not so much that there is an anti-meritocracy trend in America,

That is a big, huge question and issue to try to tackle in a comment. From my perspective, it's not so much that there is an anti-meritocracy trend in America, as that America has classically had a popular culture of "if you work hard, you will succeed" that has been taken to the extreme (Horatio Alger, as an example). However, rising income inequality, a weak job market for certain classes of individuals, poor employment prospects for college grads and the like have created a situation where there is increasing cynicism that in reality working hard will not let you get ahead. Couple that with a vocal set of extremely wealthy individuals saying stupid things and getting lots of press for it, and you start to create a growing perception that there's a "landed elite" that disdains the shrinking middle class. So - in this particular case, it's not that anyone is angry that there's a hackathon - it's the perception of extremely wealthy professional investors challenging undercapitalized individuals to write code, with a prize of literally jumping around in a booth for cash. I don't think America is anti-meritocracy, but to paraphrase John Oliver from his show, many Americans are thinking it's more of a rigged game, and not in their favor.