Good topic.
Imho the primary reason for the fall in real wages is the increase in kleptocracy during that period.
As government power increased the large corporations reacted by ramping up lobbyists and other “influencers” on government actors.
They had two main goals:
(1) Gain highly lucrative government contracts/subcontracts—whether military or civilian
(2) Make the rules (laws/regulations) work in their favor and harm their competitors—as well as any suppliers of goods and services (including labor).
This has been a gradual process over many decades.
The result is that the shareholders (and only a very small percentage of Americans own stock—something like 10%) were beneficiaries while everyone else in the economy was harmed.
“Imho the primary reason for the fall in real wages is the increase in kleptocracy during that period.”
Yes I agree.
I would add a few more things.
In an inflationary economy (fiat) wages are always the last to rise. I.E. workers are always a couple of years behind the price increases. Thus a declining standard of living.
Wage suppression policies. Mass Legal & Illegal immigration and H1-B visa’s suppress wages. Labor is subject to supply and demand pressures like everything else.
Also as you pointed out, big business loves regulations. It strangles smaller competitors who can’t keep up with the regulations.
The Democrats pretend to care about middle class and working people but they don’t. Their solutions are always more government programs, taxing the Middle class to pay for them.
The Republican’s don’t even talk about these issues, thus ceding the issue to the rats.
Trump tried to fix this and thus the establishment is trying to destroy him.