Has it really been long enough? -OR- Pleading Ignorance

In the 30 years since Ronald Wilson Reagan ushered in the "Everything you thought you knew is WRONG" era, scribes and scrubbers have been rewriting history, selectively editing the narrative and redefining everything. Turning heroes into villains and pond scum into sterling characters has been America's most successful industry.

When you scan the wreck and ruin that has been made, do you wonder where it all went so horribly off track? When workers were deemed to be ancillary and a drain on the economy? When the paychecks of laid-off workers were divvied up at the board tables and reports of further payroll cuts set mouths to drooling? When Mergers and Acquisitions gobbled up generational companies and their workforces, then dismantled them for fun and profit?

Have we really forgotten the nuts and bolts, sweat, tears and sacrifices that built the railroad on which we rode? The hard-won victories achieved through a symbiotic social compact? The underpinning of which was aimed at a common goal. A good-faith bargain that carried an implicit SHARED responsibility for its sustainability?

How can this have been destroyed so quickly? Because in the relative world, 30 years is really just the blink of an eye.