I've also been reading Lewis Lapham's "Money and Class in America." Lapham (also his first cousin William Ophuls, "Immoderate Greatness: Why Civilizations Fail") is of the Silent Generation and also the class that best passes for old money aristocracy in the U.S. I've had a mad literary crush on Lapham (former editor of "Harper's") since my teens, and he epitomizes the antithesis of the "stupid man's smart men" currently rife upon the editorially-challenged internet.
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/energy
I "inherited" the practice of frugality from my father, because his paternal line was towards "old money without money." My great-grandfather was the Treasurer of Detroit during the same era Lapham's grandfather was the Mayor of San Francisco. My great-grandfather's great-great-grandfather came over on the second voyage of the Mayflower and was the first settler/owner of some of the land upon which Thoreau tramped. I think the three main differences in philosophy/practice between "ERE" style "poor" aristocracy and the Classic Patrician style would be the focus on Family/Estate/Public-Service-Government.
-TuchmanIt qualified them for government, considered in England, as nowhere else the proper and highest profession of a gentleman...Military service in one of the elite regiments of Guards or Hussars or Lancers was an equally accepted role for men of wealth and rank, although it tended to attract the weaker minds. The less wealthy went into the Church and the Navy; the bar and journalism provided careers when earning power was a necessity. But, Parliament above all was the natural and desirable sphere for the exercise of "superior fitness."
Even in the Victorian era, the Patrician class was already centered towards intellectual Agnosticism, so the Academic realm came to replace the Church as fitting venue for the "less wealthy" aristocratic. Emerson was associated with the Unitarian church in the U.S. and its largest congregations overlap with many University centers. It's actually currently one of the fastest growing "religions" in the U.S. and my DD32 and her husband are members of one of its very Level Green/Yellow congregations, as was her paternal great-great-grandfather. They celebrate Christmas and Earth Day with equal sincerity (irony.)
My point here (beyond the fact that I am clearly becoming increasingly locked in Si loop in my current semi-decrepit state) is that, as Ophuls notes in his chapter on moral decline of great civilizations, "The Arts" and/or "Sporting" has been forever historically recognized as the "decadent" edge of profession for Old Money/Patrician male members. What you are supposed to do with yourself when freed up from need to earn money is become a Leader in Government, or at the very least over those who inhabit/work your personally owned property. IOW, according to Ophuls, if/when you observe the members of the Patrician class mainly engaged in playing at cards or video games, that is a sign (chicken/egg) that the end/collapse of your civilization is near at hand.