Literally laughed out loud about this. You might have missed some of the things that prominent leaders with "skill, knowledge, and expertise" have been doing:
Isn’t literally a Kennedy a point against proving merit? Do you think many professors would fail a Bush, Clinton, Bezos, Zuckerberg, etc? Do such bloodlines even have to apply for admittance to prestigious institutions?
It is weird that you included Zuckerberg in that list -- Mark, I presume. I'm pretty sure it was not from a famous nor super wealthy family. Although, he did attend a prestigious high school, so his parents are probably upper middle class in US parlance. And Hillary Clinton is brilliant. Look at GW Bush's kids by comparison.
https://www.kennedy.senate.gov/public/2025/9/kennedy-calls-f...
https://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/26/politics/james-inhofe-sno...
Or an even older one: https://rollcall.com/2018/02/16/flashback-friday-a-series-of...
We are definitely not sending our brightest.