The only way for a society or government to effect actual equality of outcome is to dumb down and drag down the entire population to the l;owest common denominator.
We can already see that in action in schools, federal jobs and other areas.
The government has given up on dragging the bottom demographic upward and has begun to institute policies that have the effect of ensuring a more balanced, but lower, outcome.
Your last statement presumes that the government actually intended to try dragging the bottom demographic upward. I don’t believe that was ever the case. Throwing unearned money at people doesn’t motivate them to do much other than to demand more of it.