the root cause of the issue is that government is for sale to the highest bidders. Tax policy, & also spending policy, is made on the basis of helping out special interests.
Obviously the wealthiest people & corporations benefit the most from this situation. Hence you have lower taxes on capital gains as compared to work, tax loopholes to avoid estate taxes, all kinds of corporate welfares like farm subsidies, needless defense spending, deals to prevent medicare from using its market power to negotiate lower prices from big pharma.
The Fed is perpetuating this crap by keeping interests rates super low so that the government can add trillions to the national debt at zero interest rates.
someday, in some way, the bill for the national debt will crowd out the entitlements & military juggernaut. but that time is far enough out that neither party is serious about reforming the ledger. It will be todays youth that is left with drastically cut entitlements so that bankers get their money back, lest the govt default & ruin the dollar.
each resession from this point on will get worse as the government can no longer be viewed as the safety net of last resort for the economy. eventually there will be default. how can there not be when the economy is 20 trillion & the debt is 30 trillion & boomers are retiring en masse?
