In lots of places, people feel like second-class citizens in their own country. The defining characteristic of many Third-World societies and all totalitarianisms is that a tiny elite, whether called the party members or oligarchs who call the shots. Generally speaking, only the democratic West was the exception to this rule. The U.S. long avoided the aristocrat/peasant split through growth in middle- and lower-class income. But beginning with Ronald Reagan or Barack Obama, depending on what economist you believe, this income growth stopped and trends started splitting America into two halves.
