Ask Lemmy

The short answer is that corporate lobbying exploded starting in the early 70's.

This is a deep and complex topic but the TL;DR is: money talks and this was the moment in US history where the people with the money were allowed direct access to the lawmaking process in congress. For the first time in history lobbyists were allowed to sit in congressional committee meetings and not just wait in the hallway outside. From that point on, corporate America has had more 'representatives' in congress than US citizens do.

And businesses only care about profits, and the single biggest expense most businesses have is labor. Decreased labor cost = more profits. So one of the first things that happened is wages stopped growing.

There is so much to talk about here including how and why it happened, who caused it (spoiler: Nixon is a recurring character), and what other impacts it had (too many to list).

This website does a great job of laying out the argument and providing citations: congressionalresearch.org. There are also some very helpful charts that really drive home the impact the increase in lobbying has had.

If you're interested in this sort of thing I also recommend reading about The Powell Memorandum, 1971 which is basically the blueprint for modern capitalism and advocates specifically for increased corporate lobbying. Fun fact: It is also considered by some to be a forerunner to Project 2025.

There are a lot of other good points being brought up like decreased union membership but I would argue that increased lobbying is the root cause and all other explanations are symptoms.