It wasn’t the employees who killed the “Company Man”. It was the companies themselves. Corporations value short term profit above all else, including long term stability. This means that the older, higher paid employees are a liability, not a benefit. So, they get shown the door the first time the line doesn’t go up. Loyalty is a two way street. If the company isn’t loyal to it’s employees, the employees won’t be loyal to the company. Once people woke up to the fact that the corporations are fully mercenary about employment, it was a natural reaction for the employees to become mercenary as well.
This is also why every company pushes bullshit about “we’re a family”. It’s a bald faced lie to sucker gullible employees into thinking that the company wouldn’t gut them and sell their organs at the first sign of that making a quick buck.
Every worker should watch this video at least once. It was speaking to designers, but is applicable everywhere.