The economy is an unending car crash, but don't forget that it's also deliberately and perpetually painted as "the thing that will hit any second now!", to justify the endless workers-rights cuts, bailouts, corruption, and 'lesser-evil'-ism. People can better tolerate these things if they're painted as if they're just narrowly avoiding imminent disaster, rather than just kicking the can of 'sort shit out' further and further down the road forever more.