Part of the issue is that, even though inflation "moderated", prices never actually went down. They just went back to going up slowly instead of explosively (or, rather, retailers and businesses moderated their price increases/shrinkflation). The worst of it happened during the Biden administration, which understood quite well that Americans would not accept the truth that the high rates inflation that were were seeing were a result of their predecessors' policies, and the fear of being blamed lead to a chilling effect: no real willingness to acknowledge and address the problems directly. Now, the current admin is incentivized to focus on the aforementioned moderation of the ramp, even though things never got "better", just "less catastrophic" for people with a limited ability to absorb goods inflation. The people who COULD absorb those rising prices have never not been able to, and essentially make and own so much that they never will (save some massive contraction of the economy, possibly paired with currency devaluation, as such people are also more likely to be able to avail themselves of timely advice to rotate into cash before securities or asset markets tank).
tl;dr Observers have been unable or unwilling to accurately read and acknowledge the circumstances many people are living with. We are firmly in a "extend, pretend, and pray" era.
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