Like liberalism, as I recall there are special rules that mean it's not really "any" note, right? Aren't certain notes forbidden from following others because the ear will naturally intuit (Eeek!) tonality to the pattern?
The mystery of declining classical audiences was easy to explain following Stravinsky, Schonberg, et al.
Stravinsky kept tonality alive for a long while. He was Schoenberg’s rival. As for Schoenberg, he was many things but liberal he was not. And he wrote his share of beautiful music. Atonality was inevitable.
Don’t forget that charlatan John Cage. I saw a documentary one time about Cage, and he fervently believe no note meant more than any other note. In short, for Cage there was no such thing as hard-wired musical taste. In fact he was at that time in the process of writing one of his “musical” compositions by throwing dice to determine what note he wrote down. Many supposedly educated people/fools bought his scam.