Meritocracy in the U.S. is a myth in civilian life. The military almost approximates meritocracy but it is by design not egalitarian or democratic. Without extreme discipline, again found in militarism, meritocracy results in the formation of elites who define what the metrics are for merit, they quickly become corrupt with nepotism, lowering the ladder for family and friends to the exclusion of people with actual merit, and it becomes incompetent.

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/06/th...