<i>he show ended in 2004. The same year that Facebook began, the year that George W. Bush was re-elected to a second term, the year that reality television became a dominant force in pop culture, with American Idol starting an eight-year reign of terror as the No. 1 show in the U.S., the same year that Paris Hilton started her own “lifestyle brand” and released an autobiography. And Joey Tribbiani got a spin-off TV show. The year 2004 was when we completely gave up and embraced stupidity as a value. Just ask Green Day; their album American Idiot was released in 2004, and it won the Grammy for Best Rock Album. You can’t get more timely. The rejection of Ross marked the moment when much of America groaned, mid-sentence, at the voice of reason.</i>

Looks like cherry picking by the author. Long ago, people thought Elvis and Ed Sullivan were the 'end of Western civilization'.

However, the economic events of 2008, and recently accelerated in 2013, seem to have puts the nerds at the top of the socioeconomic totem-pole as measured by income, prestige, and wealth. As housing, energy, construction, manufacturing and other 'blue collar' and 'low-skill' jobs and sectors have faltered, 'nerd' jobs like IT and coding have been very resistant, seeing strong growth and high wages compared to the proliferation of low-paying service sector and 'gig' jobs, as well as the downsizing of middle management and mediocre employees.