I think it will happen once genuine downward mobility becomes a very real fear for upper-middle class kids. As in once 10% unemployment or 30-40% poverty wage employment is the result of each private college class, we'll see giant shifts. Before that, we'll just keep claiming to be a meritocracy, but there will be more and more pressure build up.

That's what I think. A shift on work views can't happen without there being some other way to sustain that percentage of unemployed people, and that requires political action, which probably won't happen until people who've previously been comfortable start feeling the pain.

i suspect you’re correct. this is why i find it so frustrating when people deny that society’s current iteration serves at the whims of a small class of people.