I look at the rise of "populism" as a result of resource competition. As the "low skilled" manufacturing jobs moved first to Texas, then out of the borders, people either had to improve their "skills" (good luck with that, and those jobs tend to be in larger cities, requiring moving yourself/family as well) So suddenly you have a high demand for housing pricing... well pretty much everyone into less desirable areas. Those that remained in the smaller cities, now see their kids leaving, and any new residents being "outsiders". This leads to people trying desperately clinging to what they have. TL:DR we are living in Marshall Brain's Manna, everything sucks and can only get worse.