Or homeownership is being consolidated away from the average person, thus not being included in debt.

Isn’t GDP heavily correlated with the average person’s earnings?

My guess is that that post-financial crises the banks made it harder to give out loans which would decrease the amount of household debt over time as more households get declined on loans.

Real wages adjusted for inflation are up since 2008, but sharply down since 2020.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LEU0252881600A

We are now in a world where UPS drivers have to make $170k a year to live.

That's 3x median income in one of the highest earning countries on earth. UPS drivers are paid well, but I don't think that's the minimum needed "to live".

Lots of people refinanced at a low rate in 2021 (at pre-2021 prices) and are not buying new cars... those people are doing just fine. Given the fact that the housing market is frozen, there's a lot more of them than there are people who bought in the last couple of years. This drags the average down.

There's a bifurcation, with some people (mostly homeowners who owned pre-2020) getting a giant handout from the government (record low interest rates, ability to refinance, etc - due to the FED buying mortgage backed securities en masse), and the rest of the people getting shafted.