Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy is a 2012 nonfiction book by Chris Hayes - wikipedia.org 
The core thesis is that America’s meritocracy (the idea that the best rise through fair competition) has produced an elite class that is both more self-justifying and more insulated, and that this helps explain a wider “crisis of authority” - collapsing trust in institutions like finance, politics, and the media - bookbrowse.com
Hayes argues that competitive, high-reward credential systems do not simply select “the best” - they also create strong incentives for gatekeeping, gaming, and reputational cover-ups, especially when insiders police one another through networks of status and access - crookedtimber.org
> Note: Aaron Swartz reviewed this book shortly before his suicide - crookedtimber.org
The book uses prominent institutional failures and scandals as illustrative case studies for how “elite failure” happens when groups become overconfident, mutually protective, and hard to hold accountable, and it links this to public backlash and insurgent politics that reject establishment legitimacy.
A recurring idea in the discussion around the book is that meritocracy’s promised “equality of opportunity” tends to be undermined by “inequality of outcome,” because winners reinvest advantages into keeping their place and boosting their children’s chances, which recreates hierarchy under a new, morally flattering story - vox.com
In practical terms, Twilight of the Elites is often read as both a critique of credentialed leadership culture (“the cult of smartness”) and an argument for rebuilding legitimacy through stronger accountability and cross-class solidarity rather than doubling down on status competition - insidehighered.com
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