Yet the lower class (for however nebluous a definition "classes" are) is shrinking or staying the same.

So...seems like a great trend to me. Right?

Yes, I've read that. But the lower-middle distinction has always been a fuzzy one. And definitions have been changing. What it means to be "middle class" now is far from what it was some decades ago. And more importantly, such measures as CPI have been tweaked to exclude items that have become more expensive. So the middle class, in any quality-of-life sense, is arguably smaller than claimed.

The clearest trend is the growth of the upper middle class and the "1%". And increasing concentration of wealth at the top. Also increasing unemployment, which is excluded from the nominal definition, because people have given up looking for work.

Curious, by which metrics?

Most sources I believe. Pew Research: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/12/09/the-american-middl...