What happened is that mass produced goods became essentially free whilst scarce goods skyrocketed in price such that most people don't feel that they can afford

What happened is that mass produced goods became essentially free whilst scarce goods skyrocketed in price such that most people don't feel that they can afford to spend on quality items any more. 50 years ago, rent was a lower proportion of the weekly budget, food, clothing, household goods etc were higher. Now it's basically all rent/mortgage/land cost and people expect to be able to spend 2% of their budget on clothes which obviously results in endless plastic crap. It's no different in other areas of consumer goods, see smart TVs, phones that go obsolete after two years, etc.