That documentary about Edward Bernays. The Century of the Self. The episodes are appropriately named too! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_of_the_Self

It explains how we are here. Basically after WW2 the leaders embarked on a psychology advertising campaign for Western civilization where it would be too uncomfortable to wage a war again like that without all the comforts of consumerism. America is at the peak of it.

The only way the citizen of America will really push back is when the government collectively takes something from them that lies at or near the base of Maslow's Pyramid. When it gets too uncomfortable. Or else everything is actually fine.