Because we are social animals designed to seek power. Back in the hunter-gatherer day, power could mean the difference between survival and starvation - or between getting the ladies (and so offspring) or having your genes die out.
Today, with food stamps and birth-control, the power-survival equation no longer makes sense, but our human DNA hasn't caught on. We are still driven to accumulate power. For men, that usually means making money. Women don't have the power-drive as strongly as men (that's because a powerful male hunter could have dozens of kids, but even the most powerful woman gatherer could only knock out 10 children over a lifetime); even so, they'll also aim to get on top either by making money or marrying money.
But that all doesn't explain why the power of choice is money - and not political power, physical might or prestige in non-remunerative fields (academia, nonprofit, etc.) - which may be the question you're really asking. That's a trickier question, but it may be easily answered by the fact that money is the only common currency we all have. While we may seek to get ahead in our occupation (real-estate, law, engineering, etc.), the field of competition is narrowed by the people in that field. In the competition for money, however, everyone's a player. Being the most popular game, it'll also have the highest stakes and the biggest winners.
Finally, I doubt that smart people are any more or less driven to make money. But if most people are money hungry, and you assume smart people are also smart at making money, it'll look like there are "so many smart people just focused on making money."
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