The RN may well have been going down the same route, until the Falklands. Bear in mind that the RN really had only seen action in minor skirmishes since 1945. The RN had become a bit lax at assessing officers, and had begun to value the froth more than the contents. The end result was that the hard-working, but perhaps dull guys were getting marked down, and yet when the bombs started flying in the S Atlantic, they were the people who kept the ships fighting and floating. Several chaps whose cards had been marked for great things suddenly stood still, and others who'd not been expected to make Command found themselves with a shiny ship to call their own soon after.