You mix up the times and realities. We were Pax Americana. The world was in shambles. And we got soft. Our production was the envy of the world and we slowly lost that production capacity losing jobs to them while not improving the product like some nations overseas did while they produced more cheaply. By 1970 the truth was staring us in the face. And then we cut the last tie to gold and began printing up the fiat currency like every other nation that slowly has done. Now we depend on a nation that will succeed us as the major world power in a few decades for much of our goods. These are the good times compared to what is coming.
Okay, Mr. Crazy Pants... the Gold Standard wasn't the issue. We got rid of the Gold Standard in the 1930's.
I do agree that our corporate leaders got lazy and didn't do process improvement and quality control. That had nothing to do with working folks getting fair wages.
In fact, Japan and Germany, who pretty much ate our lunch in the 1970's after we defeated them, had stronger unions and more socialism than we did.
While guys of my Dad's generation never would have bought a Japanese car because they were still made about Pearl Harbor... the next generation after that had no problem with American Car companies were putting out shit like the Pinto, the Chevette, the Gremlin....
In fact, when it comes to a list of shit cars, good thing the Yugo was a thing, or they'd all be American.