Bob Herbert wrote a great op-ed for today's New York Times. He summarizes the fate of the middle class since 1980:

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The seeds of today’s disaster were sown some 30 years ago. Looking at income patterns during that period, my former colleague at The Times, David Cay Johnston, noted that from 1980 (the year Ronald Reagan was elected) to 2005, the national economy, adjusted for inflation, more than doubled. (Because of population growth, the actual increase per capita was about 66 percent.)

But the average income for the vast majority of Americans actually declined during those years. The standard of living for the average family improved not because incomes grew but because women entered the workplace in droves.

As hard as it may be to believe, the peak income year for the bottom 90 percent of Americans was way back in 1973, when the average income per taxpayer, adjusted for inflation, was $33,000. That was nearly $4,000 higher, Mr. Johnston pointed out, than in 2005.

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Read the full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/opinion/...

Curiously, the income share of the wealthiest 1% of Americans over the same time period increased from 8.5% to 21.2% (link: http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250... ). Coincidence? I think not.