In 1974, Congress re-wrote the tax code, and baked in Trickle Down Economics, and the permanent financial landscape improved greatly for the wealthy. The rest of us were dealing with high inflation (Remember Ford's WIN buttons - Whip Inflation Now?), gas lines caused by the OPEC oil embargo, interest rates over 20%, etc., and didn't recognize what was happening.

So when Reagan came along and pushed Trickle Down Economics, it was already in place, and ramping up, he was just introducing it, and selling it to the American people, and it became standard dogma for a long time.

The result has been a decades long re-distribution of wealth to the upper incomes, at the direct detriment of the working and middle-class.

That's why it appears to start before Reagan - because it did.

New York Mag: http://nymag.com/intelligencer/amp/2020/09/rand-study-how-high-is-inequality-us.html

Fast Money: https://www.fastcompany.com/90550015/we-were-shocked-rand-study-uncovers-massive-income-shift-to-the-top-1

Reagan

https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/