Yet another rant about populism....that misses the point

Listening to the latest episode (361, but tbh it could be any of them) and R and A are yet again ranting about populism and how the worlds democracies are all turning to it. They go on and on about it, citing social media, changing attitudes, charasmatic politicians etc etc without every once alighting on the primary cause: declining living standards and stagnation for the middle classes. They seem to skate over economics as if it doesn't exist and spend hours pontificating about the world going mad, as if people woke up one day and did a 180 in there political views for no apparent reason. The middle class (most working people) in the western democracies has seen huge pressures on their living standards, not least from pressure on housing, and from lack of real economic growth. They have seen jobs offshored to China and SE Asia, endless inwards migration, and work becoming more procarious. Mostly this has been championed by people like R and A as part of a 'free and open global economy', but they don't realise that it's only us that have been playing by our rules. That is why people want change, because R and A have failed, and continue to do so in their lack of understanding of basic economics. They never once mention that we are really the only economies that are in fact open. China can buy out manufacturing plants, copy our products, and yet we cannot buy their companies, or even invest in them. In fact we then subsidise (the second largest economy in the world) with postage costs paid at the expense of our taxpayers, so that the likes of Temu, Shein etc can undercut our high street. We need politicians who will actually stand up for our own populations' interests, not act like they are benevolent managers for all the worlds people. ....rant over, few.