> Our society is whatever we want it to be.
Not quite. Our society is whatever we choose to make it. It is far from a foregone conclusion that what we choose will turn out to be what we want.
agreed on the detail work aspect. I know a lot of brilliant people who are floundering because they're trying to re-draw the lines/boundaries/parameters of work in order to maintain their mental vibrance, where as many many less intelligent folks are killing it in finance/law/whatever just be being able to log a large number of hours reviewing documents that i'm sure are less than earth-shattering.
Unfortunately, democracy is out of vogue these days. The popular trend seems to be toward seeing society in terms of "natural" economic forces inexorably leading towards a certain fate.
PS: I also take strong exception to the concept of "the top 10% of us." The top 10% among what metric? Athleticism? Leadership ability? Creativity? Courage in war? Obviously not any of these things. Our society favors some mixture of above-average intellect and ability to do boring detail work for long hours. The people in the "top 10%" would certainly never be recognized as such in the kind of society that existed just a couple of hundred years ago.