No, it never meant that. "Middle class" is a USAmerican invention, and an incoherent one at that.

Class is defined by one's relationship to the means of production (e.g. whether you work in a factory, or own the factory where people work)

The middle class is gone now so that's kind of fitting. I like the term "working class" as in "I need to work to survive". It covers a huge breadth of the population but that's better anyway imo