In kind of general agreement with many comments below. If I can just take a stab at what I see as at least one of the ways we got here: During the previous rec

In kind of general agreement with many comments below. If I can just take a stab at what I see as at least one of the ways we got here: During the previous recession after 9/11, many company managers jumped on the title of the book "More with Less" and started trying to stretch resources, people first and foremost. (I say jumped on the "title" because the book actually was a clever thesis that had nothing at all to do with making your workers do two jobs for the price of one). That recession was long and deep enough & quickly followed by an even worse one that the new job definitions became the new standards. There hasn't been a enough of a good economic period for labor to take back its decent conditions. I think a lot of it is as simple as that.