Psychological depth in Tolkien's characters

[Eurytus]

It's only less realistic when one lives in a society where striving for nobility is not valued. We seem to think nowadays that striving for nobility is hypocritical or a waste of time. Aragorn, Frodo, Sam, Theoden would have disagreed-- and so would Tolkien. (And so do I.)

Whilst I agree to an extent with your view of today's society when you say "nowadays" you give the impression that it was somehow better in the past.
This is not the case I fear. Mankind has always been flawed, its just that modern technology has given us the ability to be flawed on a much greater scale than before.