In the new neoliberal era, then, success would be reframed as a product of having exceptional individual qualities (rather than exceptional social privileges and advantages), while failure would be rooted in some kind of personal deficit (rather than in lack of opportunity, equality, or social support).

In a way it developed out of the pressures against any sort of class based notion's of analysis, because of the extreme anti-communism that was enforced through the academy and US-based political institutions. These were common approaches in the generation previous, MLK Jr. could represent that era as he argued for class policies as a Christian socialist, and you had labor organization and demonstrations like the March on Washington For Jobs and Freedom. Neoliberalism was the capitalist economic structure's answer to these threats, allowing for the structure to be retained and enhanced (inequality is more extreme than ever before), while making sure people as individuals are the subjects and not any notion of a group of people with common interests that may exert influence.