from around 1935 through 1980. Their tax rates were sufficiently high that they couldn’t entertain mad fantasies of entitlement. Their greed was relatively contained. Their wealth did not afford them today’s complete detachment from the realities of society at large, so their empathy was not hollowed out by remoteness and disdain. They didn’t entertain treasonous dreams of cleaving themselves away from any concern for the public interest. They were more aware of the interdependence of all sectors of society. There were fewer Musk, Zuckerberg, Thiel type sociopathologies festering among their ranks.
Then Reaganism arrived, and as he cut and cut their taxes, gradually the wealthy began to resent having to pay any income tax at all. And they began to believe that their success was due to exceptional personal genius that owed nothing to the opportunities society gave them. Tthey began to bitterly resent any government support subsidy or that wasn’t directed their way. Their contempt for their fellow citizens grew.
Republicans may have always been the preferred party of the wealthy, but today the party exists only to service the insatiable greed f the uber wealthy.