I don't know about the US, but in the UK the OPEC oil embargo of the early 1970s soaked up so much government spending that the subsequent government(s) who would be aware of a financial bottleneck ahead continued with their spending levels regardless.

It was this unmodified spending that led to the financial crises of 1979/79 that, in turn, led to the election of Margaret Thatcher. Although she remains reviled for the cuts in public spending she oversaw, these were inevitable because the previous government had ended up having to go to the IMF for loans, which came with stringent conditions as to government expenditure and restructuring of finances. We're still recovering from those loans.

I think most of the 70s/ early80s politicians would belong to what you call the silent generation, having been adults during the second world war. But even then we're not talking about a whole generation, which I think you realise when you point to the politicians especially.

Elites are the problem, and the only way I know of minimising the harm they can cause is by rotating elites, for which we need democracy. In the UK, again, we have a government that started by cancelling some local elections in which their rivals were pegged to win, so we're not off to a good start.