The most important driver of the economy is the amount of bucks in the pockets of average citizens. Now there are a number of basic factors that are keeping that situation marginal.

First AI robotics has eaten up much of what used to be the good paying jobs of semi skilled workers. Second is the fact that excess capital has been sucked up by a very few super rich who spend a heck of a lot smaller percent of their worth than Joe six-pack (huge income disparity). This kills product demand, and business never makes investments until forced to do so by product demand, indicating the potential to make even more profit via expansion of labor and equipment.

Another factor is that manufacturing used to be limited (until around the late 60’s) to a handful of industrial nations. Now manufacturing can be easily accomplished a hundred fold easier than before almost anywhere on earth, with a glut of labor to boot, thus putting a cap on the wages of workers of the once industrial powerhouses of the world like the US.