Nowadays I feel that the US is incapable of pulling itself out of its institutional death spiral. There are a very simple series of steps and concessions that would pacify people and make capitalism healthier, more stable, and more profitable, but politics is so completely fucked that it literally cannot take those steps (like the one you suggest) in the way it used to be able to.

It's like a scared animal with its head stuck in a plastic jug of treats. It could stop eating the treats, take a second to calm down, and pull its head out. But it's just an animal. It will die instead.