Also, there was no so called safety net back then...imagine the suffering...it’s easy to see why it took 20 years for a GOP be elected president.
There was a more cohesive society in large part than there was today. You had the natural safety nets of family and community which only later were replaced by the government.
FDR held power for so long due to the War and also because people wanted the strong leader type. In that way we weren't all that different from the Germans and the Italians at that time.