> Should we expect this trend to continue, or will we ("educated" "sophisticated" people in Western society) return to celebrating the powerful and the successful like most other societies before us?

I find this to be a bizarre false dichotomy. Why not, for example, celebrate the virtuous instead? A society that valued kindness, bravery, temperance or whatever would seem a lot better than either of your options. I'm sure other people could think of plenty of other options as well.