"[Fussel] believes America has one of the most hypertrophied class systems in the world, that its formal equality has left a niche that an informal class system expanded to fill - and expanded, and expanded, until it surpassed the more-legible systems of Europe and became its own sort of homegrown monstrosity."
So did De TocqueVille, who observed that absence of set class boundaries, Americans continually aimed to use whatever vague symbols they could find to assert their position, given this uncertainty.
Btw, Fussell's Class is a fabulous book, well worth the read.