In the post-WW II economic "golden age," roughly up through the early 1970s, American manufacturing workers and the corporations they worked for were also both doing well. That fell apart as America went from a net exporter to net importer. I'm unsure if the importer/exporter transition is a direct cause, because a lot of things changed in the 1970s, but that's about the time the party ended.

I wonder if Germany will do better when/if Germany no longer has a substantial export surplus. I hope that it can. It's mathematically impossible for every country to run an export surplus, so "look to Germany" is a useful prescription only if there are other good ways to imitate Germany.