What Kotkin calls the"clerisy" is what the Right usually calls the "Liberal Elite"; the educated, the academics, artists, writers, journalists, social critics and so on--the literati, the chattering classes. They are powerless, except for their ability as communicators, which is why they are so hated by those who feel they alone are the ones who are entitled to a position in the commercial leadership. Except as critics, the clerisy play little role in the economy, they are essentially America's Bohemians: the intellectual poor. This is why they are so despised. To the Right, those who do not play a role in commerce, or in the economy, deserve no influence at all. Governor George Wallace called them "Those pointy-headed intellectuals who can't park their bicycle straight when they get to the campus."

I believe what you are referring to is what I call the "Babbitts" (after the title character in the Upton Sinclair novel), the quintessential American booboisie--the administrative/managerial/professional class.

The Babbitts are the wannabees, the ones who are waiting their turn to move up into the executive elite but who subconsciously realize they, and certainly their kids, are being squeezed permanently out into the next subclass down: the Bunkers, (after Archie, their most noted archetype). Today's Babbitt knows his class is on the decline, and he's pissed. And he's ready to blame someone, he needs a scapegoat, the clerisy will do nicely.