"the American dream" as a cultural artifact is like, maybe 70 years old. Before that, the scam hustle was certainly still alive and well, it just took the form of land speculation and railroads or literal snake oil, etc. Or, you know, abject worker exploitation or literal slavery or genocide and ecocide and land theft.
As it stands, that American Dream nonsense was basically a bargain for the white middle class families. The rich played their own game per usual.
Blaming consumers for this phenomenon is missing literally half the picture. The other half is the OUTRAGEOUS amount of money poured into these enshittification engines by venture capital and institutional investors. So if you want to blame someone for mass-produced garbage and casino equity markets, maybe blame financiers, the rich, and the easy money policy of the past 30 years?