This article is spot on.

I was born right at the start of GenX. I was born late- 64, but identify with GenX and not with boomers.

Because of my birth year when I started my career everyone older than me was a boomer. All the boomers, from the idiot project manager who would clip his nails during meetings to the PhD marvels who changed careers in their 40s did better than similarly skilled/smart GenXers that came after.

I'm smart and work hard and I'm doing really well. If I had followed the exact same career path and expensive life mistakes and was only 5 years older, my net worth would be significantly higher. 10 years and I'd have to hunt for reasons to continue working.

My private US pension (I live in the EU now) would be worth 2-4x more. I bought my first property at age 30 and paid it off at 50. I bought my 2nd and 3rd properties 12 years later and just paid them both off. If I'd bought into the market in each case 5 years earlier (let alone 10) those holding would be worth again 2-4x more. I could give a lot more examples.

My point is that even a borderline GenX/boomer like me who got lucky has seen for 35 years the boomers doing great while half the people around my age are just doing OK and younger GenXers are really struggling.

The current system sucks, and it makes the political situation in both the US and Europe easy to understand. Trump and Brexit are symptoms of a failing system. They are not the cause.