A millionaire is hardly wealthy these days. Upper middle class rich, sure. But not "an estate to leave to my heirs" rich.
Someone who got a good middle class start, went into the right career, and had everything work out pretty well (no major financial misfortune or an injury or sick family member) while saving responsibly, can become a millionaire in a few decades today. They can probably afford a nice house, which their kids can carve up to have their own nice middle class start.
This group of people is still insanely privileged but it is nothing on the obnoxious levels of real inherited wealth in the upper crust.
Speaking as one, I can tell you that having a couple million takes the edge off of everything in life. You don't sweat buying a house or pretty much any new car anytime you want it. The monthly bills are in the noise as far as concerns in life. I still go to work every day but I won't be working until age 65, that's for certain; not full time, anyways. My kids will be able to be entrepreneurs if they wish, they have a comfortable fallback that I never had. Less stress in life is a good thing.
What's different today is that inflation and high taxes have wrecked the middle class. The truly rich are the $100M and billionaire types whose wealth has run away from the rest of the people. Almost none of the truly wealthy are that way because they were smart (merit) only a few are. The rest . got rich either because they were lucky or because of some angle they could exploit such as favorable connections or regulatory capture. Above them, Old Money rules the world by at least one order of magnitude.
Someone who got a good middle class start, went into the right career, and had everything work out pretty well (no major financial misfortune or an injury or sick family member) while saving responsibly, can become a millionaire in a few decades today. They can probably afford a nice house, which their kids can carve up to have their own nice middle class start.
This group of people is still insanely privileged but it is nothing on the obnoxious levels of real inherited wealth in the upper crust.