The structure of jobs grinds down idealistic recruits in every era.

Evidence

In every era people sympathetic to these principles have entered the professions only to be ground down by the social structure of their jobs. If there was a difference in kind in the 1960s it stemmed from the greater numbers, which provided a critical mass to articulate these ideals, and from the social movements that provided the setting in which these ideals were stimulated and received notice and approval. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1474

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A compressed, near-aphoristic claim about occupational structure defeating individual renewal — the book’s central pessimism stated plainly.
• SEED: Article angle: why every wave of reformist professionals gets absorbed, and what would have to change structurally rather than culturally.