I'm not an expert on economics but I think you are missing a key piece of the puzzle here: asset prices.

As people's houses went up in value they took out 'cash-out' refinancing to buy more houses, cars, or whatever. This caused huge price bubbles in housing and the stock market. Stocks and bonds are another asset that went up due to the government buying them to prevent a collapse. This also flushed stock holders with cash. The people who did not benefit were those who did not own stocks or real estate and did not benefit from government manipulation of the market.

So I think the problem is the 'Middle Class' having too much disposable money due to their assets going up in value and the government needs to break the economy so these people lose their jobs so they can't pay for the mortgage on their house.

The 'Working Class' is collateral damage for the asset holding Middle Class.

The other group getting screwed are retirees who have 401K retirement plans tied to stocks. They will likely lose half of their retirement and it will take years to recover.