Krugman takes a look at what killed the Great Compression - a four decade period where inequality in the US was notably low. The Great Compression began in 1940 and ended more or less in 1980.
There are multiple efforts by academic economists and historians to explain this, and they roughly fall into several categories. One school that sort of supports Trumpist politics is that globalization stole all the jobs. Another says that computers and automation stole all the jobs.
The most persuasive to me has been that those two things helped create more inequality, but the real culprit was the anti-statist politics of Reagan. In fact, while Trumpist politics follows the anti-globalization, actual policy hews closer to Reagan's plan for deregulation and tax cuts.
When Eisenhower left office, the top marginal tax rate was 93%. That more or less precluded the existence of an Elon Musk or Warren Buffett. I'm not sure that a 93% tax rate is actually a good thing, but the idea of a wealth tax is something that the next Democratic trifecta - presuming representative government survives - should take a long look at.
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