Well, econs did warn about this issue of rising inequality. Anthony Atkinson of Oxford University gave the annual WIDER lecture in 1999 (another super lecture series).
In the lecture he pointed that inequality has been rising for two decades (way back then). This was common across transatlantic economies earlier but was becoming common across other econs as well. However Prof. Atkinson disagreed with the notion that this was inevitable. Policy could lower the inequality. Of course none of this was followed..
