End of an era: business will no longer be cool
One of the odd facts of the era during which I came of age was that business was considered cool. Perhaps in reaction to the counter-culture of the 60s, business gained a kind of glamor during the 1980s. I think we can never be certain how much of that glamor attached to the ability of a few Wall Street titans to make billions, versus how much it attached to stories of entrepreneurs who were able to launch cool startups (like Apple and Microsoft) and build a business empire from small beginnings.
Either way, the Economist believes that business will no longer be cool:
The love affair with business started in the 1980s and has grown into a mighty passion backed not just by money but by glamour and class. In 2009 the money ran out, but the mood was one of such chaos and confusion that it was hard to tell what was going on underneath. In 2010 it will become clear that the class and glamour are draining away from business too. It will be the end of the affair: business will be cool no longer.
Throughout this affair the business schools played the role of cupid. First, they made the study of business into an (almost) respectable academic discipline. More importantly, they made it socially acceptable, something even the poshest person could aspire to. What do the brightest and poshest students at Oxford and Harvard want to study? Business.