I can’t find the passage at the moment, but in his book Notes on Culture, T. S. Eliot actually argues that this is endemic to a societal system which is run by meritocratic, technocratic elites. That is, by those who excel at the required skills necessary to ‘climb the ladder’ and not by a broad cultural class which maintains power, I.e. a hierarchical aristocracy in the British form. His argument is something like: when you get the entire populace concerned with acquiring power, they will inevitably be dissatisfied with their current societal position.

Not sure I agree with him entirely, but it’s an interesting position.