The fundamental problem is trying to cast individuals in heroic narratives. The mechanism for status is beside the point. People in Russia had ikons of Stalin.

I feel like somehow biasing towards nonfiction is one way to improve this, but that may just be bias speaking.

We can't be all that coherent about "greed" anyway - if we do create consumer surplus through business, then this is a good thing. If we enrich ourselves by rent-seeking and cheating, it is a not. Deciding which is which is pretty hard.