>> Unfortunately inherited wealth doesn't bring out the best in people, perhaps because the concept that great wealth carries great responsibility, is obsolete.

i'm at the last few episodes of The Crown on Netflix. it deals with that question pretty well.

In my experience something happened during the sixties. It might have been the Vietnam war.
In my era, young people lied about their ages and hid ailments in order to get into the service.
The notion that people - wealthy or not - like Clinton, GW Bush or Trump would dodge the draft was a new one to me.
GHW Bush lied about his age to get into WWII and then went to great lengths to keep his kid out of Vietnam.
I was in management then and I could see a different attitude in the young people I was recruiting- not as hungry as my generation.

Journalism changed after Watergate, I think.
Woodward and Bernstein became rock stars on the one hand, while on the other hand anyone in government became someone to suspect.