Our standard of living is not diminished ? It's not due to a multiplicity of causes? It was only a generation ago that a working man could buy a home with 2 cars and have a stay at home wife.
Just so we're clear I was using a pretty impoverished approximation of "standard of living" BUT it was just over the course of 4 years: Real Wages. But you think Americans' standard of living was better in the 1960-1980s (it's unclear which generation you are referring too) and to assess that your metric is how much one male worker could provide for his family.
If we look on that broad of a time scale, you probably should broaden your measurement of "standard of living".
Currently, both of our measurements ignore sexism (for example, that women couldn't get a credit card on their own until 1974) and Jim Crow/redlining racism. Reducing racism and sexism on their own has improved the quality of life of millions of Americans. The one male worker supporting a family wasn't a reality for most women or minorities.
Our measurements also ignore that the amount and quality of goods has improved dramatically since 1960-80. Human wants are infinite and as people have more access to good products they want more of them. Nowadays, a cell phone is a necessity for example as are air bags and seat belts and millions of other tiny improvements.
We also ignore other things like community, longevity, education, civic engagement etc... that also factor into most people's idea of standard of living.
So when I ignored all these other factors and focused on Real Wages over the course of 4 years I'm making the assumption that those other things didn't change THAT much. That is an assumption that could be challenged. But when you make the broader claim that standard of living for Americans can be approximated over decades by what one man can afford and also neglect all of these other factors... I just don't think that's the same comparison. The Cleavers from Leave It To Beaver weren't representative for most Americans. If you want to say that Real Wages aren't a good approximation for standard of living over a short time period, that's fine, we could choose another. Maybe median net worth? That's also up from 2019 to 2023.
Tldr: I assumed real wages served as a reasonable approximation of American standard of living over 4 years. You made an (IMO) unreasonable approximation of standard of living that neglects most Americans over the course of decades.