The subtext for your 'working families are struggling.....It's only gotten worse since 2008' is, to me, that both Parties are equally culpable. Usually it's more explicit.
The explanation is pretty simple. One reason is increasing income inequality. At its worse since the Gilded Age, I believe. And that has in part to do with our transition to a service economy. Working as a waiter doesn't pay as well as working on an assembly line. And then COVID arrived, and played its part.
But we can't return to the past. In a few decades, robots will be doing most work. We really need to consider what we're going to do about that.