When does the elevator stop?

For me, the most striking example of the extreme apathy in Less Than Zero is after Clay accompanies Julian to Finn's apartment and discovers Julian's work as a prostitute. As the two boys stand in the elevator, Clay realizes, "I really don't care and suddenly feel foolish, stupid. I also realize that I'll go with Julian to the Saint Marquis. That I want to see if things like this can actually happen. And as the elevator descends, passing the second floor, and the first floor, going even farther down, I realize that the money doesn't matter. That all that does is that I want to see the worst" (Ellis 172). As the elevator descends lower and lower, like their lives spiraling downwards, neither of the boys appear to have a working conscience (probably dulled from too many drugs). However, at what point, if any, does the apathy stop? What does it take to drag one of these characters out of such a mindset? One can say that going far away for college seems to have begun the process for Clay, who expresses a large discontent with life at home. Although the dissatisfaction is present, Clay is still too apathetic to speak up or act against it, so in my eyes he is still just the same as the other characters. Is conformity so strong that it can cover up morality? Is there a catalyst that can break through the apathy and conformity of teenage life in the 1980s, and if so, what?