Surely the economic wellbeing of your average citizen can't get worse over time and therefore be a "lately" thing. It's not like food, housing, and healthcare are getting more expensive.

geologically lately.

Regardless of whether we think capitalism is good or not, it's gone into overdrive since the fall of the Soviet Union. And whether or not we recognize this as capitalism, it's been failing hard since the bailouts started.

The economy we live in today is neither democratic nor competitive.

I didn't think I'd have to say this, but the conditions in which we exist are created by the system under which we exist. As Kamala said, you didn't just fall out of a coconut tree.

It also wasn't just smooth sailing up to this point; capitalism suffers crises like these on a regular basis. For example, the 15 recessions just in the years between great depression (1929) and the COVID-19 pandemic (2020).

A system is designed to do what it does. If it doesn't do what the designers intended, it gets changed. Otherwise, it stays the same. You would think if these results were unintended, the system would have been changed by now.

the moon probably perceives "lately" differently from humans since it is billions of years old