Partly because there has been a tiny bit of bigotry lately *cough*civil-rights movement*cough*holocaust*cough*still-tons-of-gay-jokes-in-public*cough*. Like the aforementioned abstinence preacher, though, there is a point at which it just gets annoying. There is a difference between feeling entitled to high pay and feeling dissappointed by a bad decision, but both produce similarly negative emotions. I think part of the problem you're experiencing is the 'you can be anything' movement not being supported by comprehensive educational reform and an emphasis on showing consequences of even good choices (i.e., social workers don't make a ton of money even though they have help people a ton with their issues).
-Penguin
There has always been biogtry, and there always will be. However, social acceptance of being gay, or being Jewish, or being anything that isn't a 'WASP' is much higher than it was than when the majority of us were younger.
The difference comes in how the generations were raised, and the parents did a big disservice by raising a generation of kids to be dependant upon them. Kids wanting to move back home after college seems to be the norm now. Non-city kids not knowing how to drive, or even having licenses, because their parents chauffer them until they leave is common. Kids lacking the knowdlege on being self sufficient is what a generation of parents has produced, and that directly translates into feeling 'entitled' to everything, because they were given everything or had everything done for them.
This may not be you, but this is a definitive mark on this generation.
There is a difference in feeling entitled to high pay (feeling entitled to anything, actually) and feeling like you made a bad decision. One is blaming other people for not giving it to you, and the other is blaming yourself for making a mistake. It's not the same.
As for making choices, the information is out there. More information is available now than ever before. It's up to the person to research though, and not expect to have the research done for them.
I see this every single day. I see the blame, the failure to take ownership, and the expectation that they're entitled 'x,y, and z' because they were told so.