Most of us have nothing to offer but personal experience here, but I find the situation far from whining, and the driver behind our current political situation in the states.
My wife finished a teaching career a few years back. Retired at 55, with a fantastic pension and benefits. She will be one of the last generations of teachers to do so, as states dial back on pensions and reduce benefits. The cost of her state university education was less than a third of the current rate, in adjusted dollars. Newly hired teachers are starting the game from a totally different position with massive student loans, and a fraction of the retirement benefits of those who are leaving. If they end up with a pair of children in daycare it better be a two income family, since the teacher's pay is upside down on a weekly basis, after expenses, until the kids are in school all day. Pretty rough way to spend you twenties, while building little for retirement. In a related, but totally different part of this problem, we have parted ways with a few older couples who were casual friends, and slowly revealed themselves to be rabid followers of extreme conservative propaganda from cable TV and the net. Basically, their core values are based on the fact that they lived though a time when America was, in their opinion, the land of opportunity , where you could step out of high school, or return from a war, and find a high paying job that would support a family in a comfortable lifestyle. They are bitter as hell that their children and grandchildren no longer have that opportunity, and they want it back. Naturally, a lot of this thinking is bound with threads of everything from barely concealed racism, to a total refusal to realistically look at the world economy, and geopolitical impacts of what they demand.
Our recent relocation really drove home the fact that this was far from a rosy backward look at what really never was. We moved into a great neighborhood in a small town. The homes were all built from 1955 to 1965, and are now worth in the $250-400K range. We are surrounded by elderly neighbors who are the original homeowners, and have done stunning well on single incomes, no higher education, and factory jobs. It was common here to be the only wage earner, working in a factory job, like building TVs, or watches, and afford a nice large, custom built home, on a suburban lot. I'm talking about a 2000 sq. ft. all stone or all brick ranch, with a two car garage. These folks then spent 20-35 years living comfortably on pensions and SS, after retirement. Since the men typically pass on first, there are many sweet old ladies here who never had a paying job in their lives.
so, I might not agree with the mindset of the "MAGA" crowd, or anybody who is bitter about the modern global economy, but there is no doubt that, for a lot of the white lower and middle class, there really was a "good old days" and things were a hell of a lot better.