The 60s were worse, cultural wars, not just Vietnam.
Then where it really came to a head was the 1970s, recessions in 1973-5, 1980, 1981-82. Inflation at a much higher level than the last few years.
The prosperity that everyone took for granted from 1947-1973 came crashing down.
One reason Boomers don't have much patience with kids whining today is they lived through this period, then when they finally got their careers going in their 30s and 40s, faced waves of downsizing as computers penetrated the corporate world.
But today's cultural wars are a bit silly, just look at the album covers of the 1970s, Rolling Stones in drag, the New York Dolls, David Bowie, etc. Acid and flowers replaced by cocaine and quaaludes. 1970s were the height of "decadence," until AIDS ended the party temporarily. Yet the country didn't collapse.
Nor was globalization a disaster, billions of people were raised out of dire poverty worldwide.
Yes, there were losers, and the smug satisfaction of the winners caused them to renege on the implied side payments to help those left behind. But the biggest issue wasn't China stealing jobs, but automation, 5/6 jobs lost were due to technology.
The real problem is that many of these "divides" are artificial, and much due to the Democrats bad use of language.
The constant harping on "rights" (which suggests that those who disagree will face the strong arm of the government) instead of "live and let live" or "mind your own business." That is, don't ask those who disagree with LBTQ rights to accept them, ask them to let people alone, don't legitimize discrimination or bullying. Don't demand a right to abortion, talk about a women's control over her body within reasonable limits (i.e. after viability, only when the physical life of the mother is in danger and so on).
The gaps are as much semantics as reality - absolutest language on both sides curtail the ability to compromise.
And Democrats lost their traditional working class roots, talking about student loan forgiveness when half the country didn't go to college and don't want to pay for those who did? And where is the language of personal responsibility, it was a Democratic President who said "Ask no what your country can do for you . . . " No wonder working class whites saw them as the party of coastal elites who care only for social justice as a consumption good (I'm such a good person with the "right" politics) and didn't give a fig for people struggling in the heartland. That class divide is a cultural, not economic divide - I suspect those working class whites support most Democratic policies when expressed in language they understand. Polls certainly suggest this.
Notice so far the DNC speakers have for the most part made this rhetorical shift. Walz is the first heartland, small town politician on the national ticket since Carter and before him Truman?