The rich minority has not only become richer, but it has become smaller. Economic statistics globally indicate that the vast majority of the population has experienced a decline in their economic status, while the top 10% has improved, the top 5% improved even more, the top 1% improved even more than that, and the top .01% improved dramatically better than anyone else.
Again, economic power translates into political power, and the power to control social policy; in other words, the power to determine the living conditions and the reality of daily life for the rest of the population.
Obviously, as the power has become more highly concentrated among a smaller group of people, simultaneously, the number of people who are deprived, oppressed, and struggling to survive has increased. The accumulation of power by a smaller and smaller number of people, therefore, ironically, creates a greater and greater recognition of their own vulnerability, and they tend to respond to that sense of vulnerability by intensifying their oppressive measures, and doing everything possible to nullify the potential power of the majority.
In traditional theories of opposition social movements, we are taught this version of power dynamics. The power of the rich is in their money, and the power of the poor is in their numbers. However, creating solidarity among a very large and diverse population is tremendously difficult as compared to the almost effortless creation of solidarity among the super-rich; and without broad-based grassroots solidarity, the poor can never use their numbers to influence policy.
In my opinion, this view of relative power is a mistake. It is a mistake largely because the wealth of the super-rich is organized in the form of corporations, and these corporations are accessible to the majority, accessible for disruption, and it does not require mass solidarity to inflict disruption on corporations. So, yes, the power of the rich is in their money, but the power of the poor is in their ability to strike at the money of the rich, and thereby, impose accountability.