To be fair, SS has always been a Ponzi scheme.
SS has always been a Ponzi scheme in the sense that workers (new entrants into the scheme) paid the older ones. But initially, and for perhaps 30 years, the workers’ specific SS payroll payments more than covered the retiree’s costs, and the surplus was actually invested in something. So the specific SS surplus was actually a surplus.
Now, the funds are commingled. The worker’s payroll “contributions” go into the government’s general funds, and the retirees are paid from general funds, plus or minus an entry into the IOU account otherwise known as the Trust Fund.
A slight difference. But yes, always a Ponzi scheme. Just now, this scheme is mixed up with a bunch of other schemes... er, I mean programs.
It worked a lot better back when the retirement age was greater than the average age at death.