A recent scholarly political science study finds: That majority-rule democracy exists only in theory in the United States -- not so much in practice. The government caters to the affluent few and organized interest groups, the researchers find, while the average citizen's influence on policy is "near zero."
The exaggerated version is that we cannot call the US a practicing democracy if it's a country of wealthy forming policy to serve other wealthy. And if we define practiced democracy as policy determined by the majority of citizens across the economic, educational and social spectrums. They're talking about the whole spectrum of policy including financial, education, jobs, foreign, health care and social programs.
This invites an adult conversation about what an engaged citizenry would look like. Defining this would be no less challenging than moving towards it.