This just isn't the case. And it dramatically isn't the case. This is a side effect of using the same category terms, but not talking about the underlying dist

This just isn't the case. And it dramatically isn't the case. This is a side effect of using the same category terms, but not talking about the underlying distributions. Eg., in the UK, 80% of the country were industrial working class or poorer until 1980s; and middle class only started at top 5%. Today, the "industrial working class" level of wealth, is the bottom 20% at the very most. So if you hold the class terms fixed, "middle class" it seems the 80s top 5% has "stagnated", only to fail to mention, it now 60% of the country. If you hold the distributions constant, the wealth level acheived in the top 5% in 1980s is now a majority of the population.