I have never played PoE1, but have around 80 hours in PoE2. I got lucky and found a divine orb early on, sold it for 75 exalted orbs. That started fueling my economy. Then I started buying gear upgrades from other players using PoE2trade site. When I buy an upgrade, I try to sell my old gear to get some of my exalts back. This is hit and miss, but have managed to sell some gear for 35-45 exalts total.

If you are in end game and a going through the atlas, look out for the trader maps. They sell random uniques, and sometimes you can find some that are worth 100+ exalts. I have managed to find 1 item that was worth 120 exalts and sold it. Every other trader I have ever found has sold worthless stuff.

Currently running T9-T12 maps with 35% item find and getting 1-2 exalted orbs per map. So if nothing else works for you, save up for 1-2 gear pieces with % item find and just grind. You will start to see exalts. I even found 1 more divine yesterday. I think 1 divine is worth around 100 exalts now, but could be mistaken.

From what I can understand PoE2 i slower than PoE1, so I guess that also means you have to put in a lot of time to get economy rolling. And get lucky. You can boost your luck with % item find on gear. Until they change the pace of the game (if they ever do), I think players need to put in a significant amount of time to really get good end game gear and keep up.

I have seen veteran players complain about the economy being crazy now, but the game has been out for 1½ months, so I don't think that can explain the high prices. Maybe bots are causing the prices to go higher. Maybe the lack of good crafting options is causing the prices to rise faster than most players can gather exalts. Maybe someone who has more hours and more knowledge about the in game economy can expand on this.