Maybe the solution is along the suggestion in a short story “Philosopher’s Stone” by Christopher Anvil,

1) Nobility and social rank are pushed as worthy of attainment.

2) Rank in nobility is not passed on directly to the male heir, but is instead dropped two ranks. “The son of a duke becomes an earl.”

3) And the way to bump your rank *up* is to “bring a useful invention to prominence.” This is not to say to *invent* something… but to be the guy who brought Invention X to the world stage and made it go.

This system means that social climbing is done by advancing the state of the art. Families that don’t do well at that fall out of the nobility; families that do well at that keep their station, or advance upwards. But one need not be an inventor… only have the wisdom to see the value in an invention, and have the wherewithal to bring the technology not only to market, but to make it a world-beater.

I have borrowed this description from a blog on up-ship.com p=8496 as it said exactly what I wanted to say.