What's going on?

This. This is going on.

https://time.com/5888024/50-trillion-income-inequality-america/

It's not so much the older generations that have sapped all your wealth and health and security, as the richest have shamelessly stolen from the poorest and few are even acknowledging the problem.

It's not just the US, either - though the US is worst. Other countries used to revere the US, but now the US is viewed along the lines of somewhere like Saudi Arabia: you can live well, provided you belong to a certain demographic.

In the UK, the laws on usuary were changed a few years ago so there is no limit to how much interest a bank can charge (or how little they can pay on savings).

They're not even pretending any more.