The middle class seems to have played a real important part many times in history, though. In Europe they meant that the king could join with the them against the nobility with the end of feudal times as a result (but stronger kings) if I got it all right, and it seems to me that many parties do court the middle class - hence all the (in my eyes) rather exaggerated emphasis on family values and so on.
They do get squeezed, I think that is true, but not as much as the really poor. The rich always gets the cream.