A big part of the problem is that wealth has overwhelmingly been funneled upwards. Despite being the wealthiest country on the planet, and despite said wealth largely increasing over time, the average person hasn't felt it, because they don't get a cut. For over 50 years now, wages have become disconnected with productivity, with the capital class siphoning off nearly all productivity gains for themselves at the expense of everyone else.

See: https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/ See: https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distr...

One of the primary reasons Trump won the election is that the Democrats were hailing the high-level economic numbers as a big success, but the average person wasn't really feeling it. Being told that things are going great when they're suffering put many people off voting and caused others to vote against the incumbent party in hopes of a change.

Unfortunately for the masses, the Republican party has largely been responsible for the current wealth inequality through repeated tax cuts disproportionately affecting the wealthy and attacks on worker representation over the last half century. Though, to be fair, despite their rhetoric, the Democratic party has generally been complicit, as they are also owned and operated by moneyed interests. Citizens United was probably the final nail in the coffin containing any hope to turn things around.