Interesting comment. I grew up in a blue-ish collar rust-belt city, was "gifted" (whatever that means) and ended up getting a PhD (no debts, though) that I now arguably don't make money from. Everything you mentioned is very common, but I'm not sure that observation points to some kind of change we can make versus the underlying day to day realities of the US circa 2017.
My big takeaway from years inside higher education both as a student and as staff and adjunct faculty is that the most successful people are those aligned with wealthy, connected families and despite my aptitude, I was always on the outside looking in. It's as though there are two colleges, two universities, which is the same in the "real world" also--a few get brought along because they're connected and the rest of us are encouraged to believe in the illusion, the lie, really, that we can have true upward mobility. I have been upwardly mobile, but only because where I came from was so low. In comparison to the insiders I am talking about, many of whom I would characterize as drooling idiots who would never make it on their own merits, my own arc is far less profound.
The children of the wealthy and connected will always have the upper hand and there's nothing you can do about it other than take big risks to start your own business and build up wealth faster than working for someone else can accomplish. If you succeed, you will be "new money" and remain an outsider. You may improve the lot of your heirs, however.
The biggest slap for me in my whole life of hard work and continuous improvement is the realization that I prospered more via marrying well than I have in my actual career and that even my relatively modest wealth does not compare to the most successful people because the bar has moved so incredibly far up.