But our basic answer is that the 2016 eruptions constitute a tipping point – a moment when the many pressures that had been squeezing voters for a long time cumulated to a point where, quite literally, daily existence for many had become close to unlivable. There is strong evidence that many citizens were searching desperately for ways out of what looked (and in fact are) dead-end situations. Many rebelled as they listened to commentators tell them that the US economy was really doing better than it had in many years and that they should be celebrating America’s exit from the Great Recession. . . . The reality of the Hunger Games was just too obvious and empty slogans no longer appealed, they just disgusted or enraged. When two politicians broke through the big money cartels that dominate both major parties, popular enthusiasm surged almost overnight to seismic levels, shocking elites in both parties and flummoxing the entire American establishment. 

https://www.ineteconomics.org/uploads/papers/Ferg-Jorg-Chen-INET-Working-Paper-Industrial-Structure-and-Party-Competition-in-an-Age-of-Hunger-Games-8-Jan-2018.pdf