It's not enough to strive for people to be reliable and adequate. You need a system that selects reliably for such people. Being groomed for a job from childhood is not reliable enough. Many people will be good enough for the job, but many will not. The problem becomes bigger the higher up you go in the society. Meritocracy won, both in economy and in war, because the people in charge in non-meritocratic societies are too often grossly incompetent.