Americans are now watching the last series of Downton Abbey. In the days of the landed aristocracy and a large domestic servant population, the life of the domestic servant could offer a degree of predictability, security and comradeship; it could also be demeaning, exploitative and cruel, depending on the family and the boss.
As soon as the servant class could it decamped to other jobs and better opportunities. The old Establishment was gone (with death duties and a poor economic outlook down on the land) and the traditional life of the aristocracy dribbled away with the last debutante.
For approximately 70 years those who otherwise would have been in domestic service had both opportunity and freedom to make of themselves what they wished. Some thrived, others didn’t. Some got an education, some didn’t. But with the safety net they were free and reasonably secure.
Until now. The British working class is now back where it started, but in a much more dire situation. The well-paid factory jobs are no longer there. Retailing is in the hands of the big battalions. If you have a job it is based on a one year contract. Paternalism has vanished, and there is no loyalty or care shown by management for the workers. The old idea of noblesse oblige has gone. If you are young and educated you are still fine, but watching Downton, you realise that those older people, now struggling to make a living, have lost something human, even if it is politically incorrect to say so.