The fact is that the sentiment "Nice work if you can get it" was famously used-- and ironically intended-- in a popular song penned by the Gershwins in... 1937. Even then, it was hardly a revolutionary idea, since it was the basis of a kind of tongue-in-cheek jab and a translation into interpersonal domains.

"Let them eat cake" and all that.

So yeah, I think this is not really a new phenomenon.

I used to have to bite my tongue REALLY hard when some of my colleagues would bemoan the 'talented' students who just couldn't seem to pull it together enough to 'take full advantage' of all of those fantastic opportunities in front of them...

Made me mad as anything, though, that such students (many first-gen college students or those from low SES homes) were judged as "unmotivated" relative to more privileged peers.

Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.