Historical observation

In a brief conversation today, the idea of cultural depravity came to mind, my mind at least.  It occurred to me that in this sense, history has been repeating itself. 
It seems that there are a handful of fruits and labors that go hand in hand. Any student of history can articulate what happens to a society when long term success results from the people's hard work. The pattern seems to go like this: the first generation works very hard, makes incredible sacrifices and builds for themselves a solid financial foundation.  The second generation follows suit and makes even greater successes. With each subsequent generation, more success means more money, more comfort and more free time. It is in this kind of situation that the old saying really rings true, "Idle hands are the devils work."  When a class of people arises that has an abundance of money and free time, corruption and perversion ALWAYS follow.  Look at ancient Rome, ancient Greece, middle ages Europe, multiple instances of the papacy, pre-Soviet Russia and our modern day America and the story is always the same.
An abundance of money leads to an abundance of free time leads to an abundance of desire for entertainment, which leads to perversion, depravity and ugliness.  A survey of what various cultures find entertaining and are willing to pay to watch only reinforces this observation.
What do we do with this?