American?
Ford Madox Ford quotes a saying from the north of England: When land is gone and money spent/Then learning is most excellent.
The Prince of Hanover who just caused a shakeup in the Gottingen faculty said "Professors, dancing girls, and whores: you can hire them for money anywhere." (Except, as it turned out, when the professors have names like Grimm and Humboldt, maybe you can't.)
No doubt one could multiply the examples. If America is at all a special case, it is probably because things traditionally changed faster here, and yesterday's learning might not apply to today's situation.
American heroes are defined by Hollywood. The #1 trait being - they get the girl. This Darwinistic prerogative of American Individualism has been the defining factor of our hero worship. If you don't fit the description, you are lesser.
Tech is introducing "the ability to change the world" as a competing concept to biological evolution. Thus, we are seeing nerdy entrepreneurs slowly added to the lexicon of hero worship.