Over 20% of the US population has been involved with the Correctional system at one time or another in their life, a staggering statistic along with the 8 million currently in the Correctional system.

Back in the 1970’s it was decided during the Cultural wars that the Social Benefits of the New Deal were to be reduced or eliminated and more prisons would be built so the US went from a Correctional Population of about 100 per 100,000(early 1970’s)to 2400 per 100,000(prison,jail,probation,parole,etc)another staggering statistic on the decline of Democracy and the building of a Dictatorship.
At the same time the last of the Tuition Free Colleges ended and Tuition along with almost all Cost of living measures began to rise rapidly while the wages became stagnant or began to decline outright.

When the US went off the Gold Standard in 1971, the US oil production peaked about the same time and then declined, Japan and Germany caught up to the us both Economically and Technologically then surpassed us, the Soviet System began to decline at the same time so other countries no longered needed the US for it’s Military and Markets to protect them from the Communist System the USA Empire began it’s long decline and this is accelerating as time goes by.
The US dollar for example was worth 4 times more then the Swiss Franc, Japanese Yen and The German D-mark now fast forward 38 years later the Swiss Franc is at Parity with the Dollar, The Japanese Yen is worth about 11 cents more and the Euro dollar is worth about 50% more then the US dollar, most other major currencies also have gained against the US dollar over this period of time.
Either the US standard of living as declined 450% since the early 1970’s or Europe, Japan and other countries have increased their standard of living-both are the correct anwer and now the US is in Rapid,steep decline while the Euro-Area for example is by far the largest Exporter, Creditor, World Investor which is reflected in the strength of the Euro. Basically the US economy is only half as strong as the Euroland economy while Europe has a much lower Rich-poor gap, the Gini-index is about 28 verses about 50 in the USA which has a very large Rich-poor gap.
So the Standard of living for those who did not come from money or worked during the Golden Years of the post world war 2 American Empire is much lower then in places like Germany.
When the economy Falters so does your Democracy, the two are directly tied together.
You can have a Concentration of wealth and power at the top or you can have a Democracy where the Nations Resources are shared and the Wealth/Power is spread out among the Population but you cannot have both.
One is a Dictatorship and the Other is a Progressive Democracy.