Why, because Pat Buchanan says so? No, this election was nationalized by the Iraq war and nothing else. That's why we got hit by a blue tidal wave. In some specific locations economics undoubtedly played a role. However, those issues wouldn't have impacted the control of Congress had the war in Iraq not been such an issue.
The economy is a stellar performer on a national basis. In some areas certain industries are struggling for a myriad of reasons. The garment industry has been dieing for 30 years and has done nothing to help itself other than to demand protection from Washington. These kinds of transitions have been going on in our economy for hundreds of years and we're much better off because of it.
The worst thing you can do to an economy is waste valuable worker capital on work that could be done elsewhere. The better and natural course is to move labor up to higher uses, and this is something we've always done, and is what is always done in growing economies. Economies that are stationary implode. Besides, you can't show us any statistics from a reliable source that shows our economy is suffering in any way. We're still the locomotive of the global economy and the envy of the world.
The economy as a whole may be performing well, but an awful lot of people are getting left behind. And, needless to say, they are not happy about it.
I'm not advocating going backwards, but I will say the thing that nobody else is willing to admit: The sacred American middleclass simply doesn't matter that much anymore. Middleclass power as both a wokforce and consumers is diminishing.