Reagan's all out assault on Collective Bargaining started the fall in middle class standard of living. The good old days of the '50s and '60s were the days when a father could go to work at a union job and make enough to support his family so the wife/mother could stay home and raise the kids. Reagan also is responsible for the massive increase in healthcare costs with his push to deregulate the healthcare industry so that once General/non profit hospitals became enormous profit generating HMOs. Tax cuts for the uber wealthy under the guise of some of that largesse trickling down to us undeserving masses who still pay taxes was the crowning blow.