They didn't have that word for it, but they would for instance talk about debasement for instance with putting base metals inside the coinage metals, the precious metals suitable for making coins. Although for sure some Romans used the word puffed up like a leather bag full of hot breath to hunt whales (one poet talking about whale hunting in the time of Marcus Aurelius). It's irrelevant. There's the same thing happening, the pauperization of the middle class, tipping the scales. They knew.