As the Lenin quote goes, every society is three hot meals away from chaos. The standard of living in US is rapidly collapsing, and people's wages are not keeping up with the cost of living. That can't go on forever.
That very much used to be the case when most people could make ends meet financially. The problem now is that increasing numbers of people are unable to pay their bills. Credit card delinquencies are at all time high, so are car payments, and soon people won't be able to afford their mortgages or rent. That's what's driving the polarization of society.