> Is pg generally aligned with this line of thought

Yep, but this is a fairly common take I've noticed in England (not as severe in Scotland).

The air is thick with a semblance of classism, and I've found the business culture to be horrid due to this "old boys club" mindset.

Imagine an America where the only way to open doors to the upper echelons is to attend only an Ivy.

And I say this as an Ivy grad.

To a large extent I feel this is because the British economy is so heavily tied to legal, financial, and media services, and as such the "Magic Circle", "The City", and the media consolidation in Greater London has such an outsized impact.

Ironic too because there are fairly decent clusters of engineering research like DefenseTech in Southwest England (which tbf is fairly posh) and Robotics and HPC in Edinburgh.