> I theorise that many social ills come from workers having less pride in their skills and achievements, and a greater sense of social alienation, due to automation.

Welcome comrade. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation

I agree entirely. Even in an idealistic fully egalitarian post-scarcity society, to truly be happy I think most people would need to do work that they can feel a sense of accomplishment about. The problem is that work at most jobs is increasingly just toil. Any possibility to scrape some tiny flakes of satisfaction out of the toil gets removed, often for no good reason.