Humans just seem to be wired for cargo cult. If I make the same mistakes as the one who got unreasonably lucky, I'll end up in the same improbable spot.
What if we humans had a predisposition to "Cargo-Cult" in order to strive to advance our race? Some sort of memetic gene. A sort of selfish gene if you will.
People would argue striving to be like a TED speaker or Kim Kardashian or (INSERT_CELEB_NAME_HERE) is superficial, dumb and shallow. Yet those people are better positioned to survive given our society doesn't change.
I would be interested to see if their was some sort of Event that drastically changed our world, would we worship hunter-gatherer style traits again?
Sounds like you're describing the distinction between Fiedler's Task Oriented vs Relationship Oriented Leader at a sociological level, but we can see these distinctions at organisational level already. Different orgs favour different styles of leadership personality depending on what kind of environment the org is operating in
It's horses for courses. Its as much about the leader suiting the org and taking it where it needs to go, as it is about the org being led.
In your example, I'm taking "celebrities" as leaders; Kim Kardashian for instance being "Relationship Oriented" and perhaps reflecting the desire of her followers for maintaining stability and comfort.
The rougher, more "Hunter Gatherer" style traits, perhaps channelled by modern political personalities perhaps reflect followers who are in more uncertain circumstances and who are looking for economic growth and an stabilisation of their situation.
