I am not sure of the answer, although George Orwell wrote an essay (online) worth reading, “ Second Thoughts on James Burnham”.
The question is did “conservatives” promote it.
My take is that conservatives have generally discouraged their kin and fellow conservatives from joining any of the major institutions of the US (academia, journalism, government, unions, etc.) except for corporations. Conservatives (myself included) had the naive belief that so long as corporations remained conservative they could counterbalance all of the other US institutions. This was a grand miscalculation.
Another theory I heard a while ago, and sorry but I can't remember the source, is quite interesting. He blamed everything on the demise of primogeniture, i.e. rich established members of society giving the vast majority of their wealth to the eldest son.
The theory went like this: if most of the wealth was given to a single son, then the remaining siblings would have to struggle in various other occupations in order to try and attain the same level of status they once had as sons to a rich man. In the past this would mean that the generally conservative sons of the wealthy would struggle their way up the hierarchy of law, politics, church, academia, journalism, etc. They wouldn't all just be various members of the board of their father's company or part owners of his lands.
Obviously primogeniture is not coming back anytime soon, but it's interesting to think that once again favoring equality over opportunity may have helped to destroy the US that once was.
“...George Orwell wrote an essay (online) worth reading, “ Second Thoughts on James Burnham”.”
That sound intersting.