The first thing to understand is that, for the most part, the current economy only benefits the financial classes now.  When financial numbers are quoted, like the average income of Americans, that number is skewed by the fact any increase in average income is 90% comprised of gains by the upper 1% or 10% of the population.

Americans' paychecks are bigger in dollars than 40 years ago, but their purchasing power has hardly risen at all.  The wages of the lowest tenth of American workers have gained just ~3% since 2000 while the highest tenth rose 15.7%.

Trillions of dollars redistributed to the wealthy

Economists at the Rand Corporation estimate the bottom 90% of wage earners comprise less and less of the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while the top 5% have doubled their wealth.  Nearly $50 trillion (~$2.5 trillion per year) has been redistributed from the bottom 90% of income earners to the top 1% since the mid-1970s.