We may be witnessing something similar today. Silicon Valley has already produced alternative institutions that serve many of the same functions as traditional business schools. Y Combinator, the startup accelerator, offers networking opportunities, credential signaling, access to capital, and practical education, but with a crucial difference. It rewards people who can build things, not just manage them.
This suggests we’re entering a period where two elite classes will coexist: the legacy professional-managerial class, still holding institutional power but increasingly marginalized, and an emerging elite defined by technical competence and measurable output. The transition will likely take decades, with established managers maintaining their positions even as the pathways that created them disappear.
For young people watching this unfold, the implications are stark. The old ladder is burning, rung by rung. Those who would have become management consultants may need to become applied data scientists; those who would have been people managers may need to become product builders. The new elite pathways are still being forged, but they share a characteristic the old system often lacked: they reward people who can actually do the work, not just coordinate it.