Interestingly, even as Thatcher was working to open things up and making the British class system more like America's, the US class system started becoming more and more rigid.

BBC: Class calculator: A US view of the class system

Sometimes they carry this to ridiculous lengths: I remember being addressed on the subject of the rigidity of the British class system by very rich men over lunch in a grandiose club in one of America's greatest cities.

WSJ: Theodore Dalrymple on the Secret Appeal of Downton Abbey

Casually, the movie chronicles the end of the rigid British class system and the liberation of the working class through popular entertainment.

NEWYORKER: Gosford Park