Stephen McHenry wrote:
[..]
Soon, the people who were doing the good work went elsewhere where
they could once again do good work, unencumbered by the "meritocracy".
An alternative interpretation is that the good people started being
surrounded by less-good people who couldn't understand why their
less-good ideas weren't being praised and glorified. To explain
why less-good ideas weren't being praised simply for existing, the
good people's behavior is described as a "meritocracy". And if
the less-good people don't deal with that reality very well, the
good people go elsewhere to once again do good work, unencumbered
by the need to explain themselves as a meritocracy.
gja