Rather than feel that he is a disappointment, a man tends rather to lower his standards to the point at which he can meet them reliably.
This is the problem with our democratic society: our cultural standards are the product of the most mediocre members of our society, rather than a product of our aristocracy.
Of course, there is also the inverse problem: the perpetuation, based on the myth of equality, of the mistaken belief that all men can achieve great things if only they work hard enough — and the despair this plunges our society’s Willy Lomans into when they, predictably, fail.
Both unhealthy dynamics modify our values over the course of time in America.