In America, the Taft-Hartley Act de-politicized unions by banning socialists and communists from union leadership, banning closed shops, and banning unions from striking for political reasons or in solidarity with each other or basically any reason other than to increase their own paychecks and benefits as employees. Key unions who could easily shut down the entire economy by themselves if they wanted to like longshoremen were neutralized as a threat by being bought off and/or targeted for mafia infiltration. This effectively killed unions as a political machine, which was the central pillar the "old" left organized around. The "new" left was formed among university students, who tend to be the children of elites and obviously don't face the same material conditions as working class people do, leading to them being more focused on pet social issues and largely ignoring economic ones. Half a century of neoliberal economic policy has also effectively conditioned the populace not to think in terms of having any democratic control over the economy. "The market" is seen as something that is wholly constructed by the private sector.