I like Vic's take on things.
He's not wrong, but he left out a whole lot. Like the role unions played in that period from 1936-1980. But, in fact, the wealth disparity has been with this country long before 1936, and the US has behaved very, very, very badly to the rest of the world as well as to it's own.
US values do derive from Judeo-Christianity and those values do NOT embrace honesty, truth, fairness or justice. The US founders utterly failed to address the inclination to corruption, and no one has sought to remedy that gaping flaw. As long as a society fails to expect MORE, not less, from its leadership, fascism is waiting in the wings.