If we are being honest, we've never truly been a real merit based system.

EEO is racism in a dress.

Civil Liberties Rights were pushed because of inequality.

Labor rights were put in place to further already existing divisions between classes.

And so on, and so on.

Any time any agency has been brought in to help a "suppressed" or "discriminated" group or type (race, sex, ethnicity, color, religion, gingers), you automatically create a system that bypasses merit for some other qualifying attribute.

We need something better than we have now, for certain, but a truly merit based system would be a rare wonder indeed.