There's a growing section of US population disconnecting from the American Dream and walking away from ideas of wealth and success. Why? Because they have lost hope of ever achieving any of it for themselves and because the ever-expanding wealth gap causes the super rich to come across as offensive and insulting. So they choose to despise wealth and the wealthy as a coping mechanism for their unhappy situation.

However this happens only to a relative minority of the population, leaving most people loyal to the dream that all will be well when they win the lottery or somehow tap into some magic that will bring them millions and free them from the morass of ordinariness they're stuck in.

To answer your headline: we worship the rich because the rich have something we wish we too could have. You can't fault us for wanting something better than a shitty job, a shitty house and a shitty neighborhood, junk food, junk clothes and junk culture. A meaningless role in an overcrowded smelly corrupt society that oppresses us with religion and puritanism and partisan hatred. There simply has to be something better. Therefore, we will keep searching for it.