> It argues that the American economy has reached a historical technological plateau and the factors that drove economic growth for most of America's history are no longer present. These figurative "low-hanging fruit" include the cultivation of much free, previously unused land, technological breakthroughs in transport, refrigeration, electricity, mass communications, sanitation, and the growth of education. Cowen, a professor of economics at George Mason University, theorizes that these factors have contributed to stagnation in the median American wage since 1973.

This is a short (60pp) work, but a fuller treatment (780pp) of how all the low-hanging fruit in improving health and technology / efficiency has run its course is in:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_and_Fall_of_American_...

Since the 1970s we had computers go mainstream, and since the 1990s (Internet) connectivity, but according to the productivity numbers, those technologies ban been played by the mid-2000s:

> "You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics."[2]

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Productivity_paradox

> He further argues that the failure to diagnose the trend has led to a degradation in political discourse since left and right leaning actors blame the policies of "the other side" and "what I like to call the 'honest middle' cannot be heard above the din."

I disagree, there's no blaming on the other side since just one side has really been in charge and that side is comprised of both Dems & Republicans. Whilst I can understand that in the US some would deem Dems as a left-leaning actor - it has never been that. In effect, the US has always had a right-leaning government, oscillating further or closer from the centre.