downward

Language, and plenty else, devolves without a sufficient degree of regnant snobbery: gatekeeping, and influential webs that require care by members, if they are to remain attached.  But we (I don't mean our country, I mean a larger, transnational we) are not tolerant of gatekeeping, and have less and less of it: classiness and care, excellence and effort, become merely individual qualities, even little more than traits or quirks.  What is left is viewpoint, bottom line, or hard affiliation.  This is the gloomy takeaway, anyhow.