The economic mess began in 1913, with creation of the Federal Reserve and the federal income tax (16th amendment). These allowed continual and sustained growth of the federal government.
The economic mess accelerated with the 19th amendment (women's vote) in 1920, as women vote for security over liberty.
The economic mess culminated in the early 1960s with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, the Food Stamp Act of 1964, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, and the Social Security Amendments of 1965 which created Medicare and Medicaid. This is the so-called "Great Society" or welfare state by LBJ.
We have not even touched upon the moral mess, which (briefly) came about through the Frankfurt School at Columbia University and UC Berkeley in the 1950s (free sex, no moral absolutes), the FDA approval of the birth control pill in 1960, and the outlawing of prayer in schools in 1962 by the Supreme Court.
Finally, there is the Immigration Act of 1965 which allowed immigrants from 3rd world sh!tholes, giving foundation to identity politics and the fragmentation of the social/cultural/historical mores of the USA.
The Boomers participated in all this, but they certainly didn't vote for or create these disasters.
Oops - I left out Nixon decoupling the currency from gold backing in 1971. This led to unrestrained fiat money worldwide, more economic mess.
During World War II, Congress introduced payroll withholding and quarterly tax payments with the vote of the Current Tax Payment Act of 1943.Without withholding, government could never have grown so big. I'd be fewer than one out of a thousand people have any clue how much they are paying in state and federal taxes because you get a net paycheck.
We should revert to everybody going to the Paymaster's window on Friday afternoon to collect cash. Then require people to send in quarterly estimated tax payments. The collective national wailing would wake people in Asia and Europe.