It's always the same: fierce defense of one group is a difficult habit to break... and as the decades speed by and circumstances change, defensive behaviors that once made sense may end up causing a new round of disadvantage for others. So eventually a new challenger arises to support the underdog and the pendulum swings again.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
