Upward mobility is a very recent phenomenon. Pesants weren't told that if they worked hard they could be nobility. There were born peasants and were very aware they would die peasants.

We're at a unique point in that there was a brief period in recent history where upward mobility was true, and now it's becoming untrue again and those for whom it was true don't believe its becoming untrue again.

Stories of past upward mobility was always a lie. People would have you think that somehow in the past, 50% of people were making it into the top 10%.

Perceptions of the past are filtered through media that The life of the top 5% was the average.

I just see it as the system reaching equilibrium on some meta level. You have to do better than the norm to break out of the norm. And if everyone can do it, then it's the norm and not what you want.

Now, whether that's right or if the norm is a good place for the majority of people - That's a different matter entirely.

Eh, the default is usually society unrest with the hopeless defaulting to war and civil war, so that improvement window is tiny and closing.