Most people are just managing to stave off homelessness, living hand to mouth. They live to work, and have very little energy or time to concern themselves about trying to change fundamental issues, if they are even educated on those issues, which leads into...
The US education system is failing quite badly. People are not taught well how to critically think, and almost never cover fundamental societal issues or how to organize to improve them. It's a meat grinder that is designed to get you smart enough to be a good employee, and generally kills the flame of curiosity in most people. This is especially true in republican states, where they are actively gutting the public education system in favor of private schools that will teach Christianity, and that slavery wasn't all bad (literally, in Florida they want to teach that slavery gave slaves on-the-job experience)
The red scare of the 50's and 60's is still effecting older generations, and they view any sort of collectivism as Stalinist communism. This is reinforced by Fox news, which is genuinely fascist propaganda, and is wildly popular amongst the elderly and rural populations.

Saying all that, there are people trying to make things better actively, and we're starting to see an awaking of the working class as unions are making a comeback, and more people are beginning to realize that the system itself cannot pull itself out of this capitalistic nosedive, and that grassroots mutual aid and prefiguration is a more promising way.