The “middle class” lifestyle began to become unaffordable due to three things: women entering the workforce en masse, drivng down future wage gains for all; the expectation that every high schooler must attend college to succeed, supported by subsidy and debt, driving up the cost of college education; and trade policy collapsing entire segments of the US economy, which reduced wage stability and the opportunity for future advancement.
The end result was families in which both husband and wife absolutely had to work at increasingly less desirable jobs in order to maintain even a semblance of the lifestyle of the previous generation, which was in most instances supported on one income.
so true....my dad was a Teamster and my mom stayed at home. we lived ok. today my wife and i are both college educated and fairly successful in our trades and based on the bureau of labor and statistics tables for CPI we make about 20% less than my father did all by himself back in 1980