I think this has to do with the growing margin between the richest/upper class and poorest folks. Sure you find plenty of HN folks doing 3.5 X average salary.. but majority, considering inflation etc, are not doing this well.
So average poor Joe looks at Musk and instead of seeing him for what he is, he cheers him up, thinking "one day I will be like him [that rich], so I would want people to cherish me the way I cherish him now". I think we see that on every front, sadly including politics. I mean people like Boebert or MTG should have never had any power even to decide what mix to use to clean a dirty floor, yet alone deciding on millions of American's fate, but yet here we are...
If anything, this numbness and ignorance will grow.
