I'd love to go into great detail in my response, but will try to keep this reasonably short. Best of luck with that, considering it involves to related areas of study I find fascinating. Let's start with generations. In this case, from parents to their children, rather than multi-generations.
The concept of social mobility tends to be based upon the exceptions, rather than the rule. We might need look no further than our classmates from school to confirm this. Those who had doctors and lawyers for parents tended to end up, as adults, in or near the same social class as their parents. Those with middle class parents tended to become middle class, although the definition has somewhat shifted due to the rapid shrinking of that class. Working class parents produced working class offspring. And certainly we witness the damage that multi-generational low-income/ public assistance has resulted in -- not do to LBJ's planned Great Society, but from the Nixon-republican recognition that by creating a bureaucracy, there can be lots of money made off an investment in keeping people poor.
Second, we consider the growth of an individual from teenager to youth to the phases of adulthood. It is common for teens to have a period of experimentation and rebellion. A few of us have never stopped, but most adults have. Youth is known for its self-righteous indignation that "the system" is flawed. But as they begin to navigate the adult world, especially employment, they tend to adjust their behaviors in order to make ends meet. Add a child or two, and their opinions and behaviors change to go with the flow of the greater society. We need look no further than my generation, that were young in the 1960s and '70s. No less than 85% of us have become our parents, just in this season's garden, not much different than the string beans I have growing this year, from seeds I harvested last year.
Now, what is upsetting that apple cart is that the idea that kids will grow up to replace their parents' status doesn't seem to hold for those other than those born into wealthy families. An obvious example is found in coal-mining communities. Generations of miners counted on earning a paycheck by working in the mines. Raising a family. Maybe seeing grandchildren before dying a painful death. This was their stability. But now machines mine coal, and those gosh-darned northern liberals want to end the coal industry. This creates -- or increases -- the social anxiety and tensions.
Next, let's consider some social group ..... say, white people in the southeast. Some worked hard to maintain about the same social status as their parents. They may be sending their children to college, but many degrees today only suggest the same income level as a high school education did when I was young. And for the few that might be well-educated, there aren't so many jobs in their home towns. This creates a steep increase in the anxiety and fear levels, not just in individual families, but in a manner that saturates their society.
Again, Trump did not create this atmosphere, but he exploited it. For every would-be tyrant throughout history has know that in order to get the masses to forget about their own low-level of being, all he has to do is make them focus their fears and hatred on some minority group. Announce that he alone understands the secret plot of the enemies, and he alone can fix it. Today, of course, the enemies are liberals and non-white people.
Thus, more than who is in office has to change ..... there needs to be significant changes in "the system" ..... including our current economic system. It is a sad fact that many of those who would benefit the most are those most hostile to the needed changes. For they are victims of fear and ignorance, And their children have become this year's crop, and on and on.
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