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What most people probably don't know, however, is that the primary factor in this decline is not economic changes, but social changes. "Family income" has been declining primarily because families are getting smaller, and we have more people earning more money than ever before -- but in separate households.

Not according to the CIA World Factbook:

The onrush of technology largely explains the gradual development of a "two-tier labor market" in which those at the bottom lack the education and the professional/technical skills of those at the top and, more and more, fail to get comparable pay raises, health insurance coverage, and other benefits. Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households.

My guess is that if a rising economic tide lifts all boats, the bottom 80% would have seen significant gains along with the top 20%.

Nothing you've posted there contradicts what I've said.

It's worth noting that the bottom tier of U.S. families -- as measured in terms of household income -- include a disproportionate number of single-parent households. The mere fact that there is only one adult in these households is a huge impediment to their financial mobility. Even a household with one spouse who works outside the home and one "stay-at-home" parent will almost always have a higher income than one with a single parent.