America's vanishing middle class documented

/ABC News image

An investigative journalism series produced at ABC News is a grim wake-up call: The American Dream is dying.

In the series, "My Reality: A Hidden America," veteran journalist Diane Sawyer exposes the undeniable truth about income inequality in the United States. Millions of hard-working, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens are getting screwed while the wealthiest Americans bank an ever-increasing portion of the nation's treasure.

There are several drivers of the transformation of The American Dream into The American Nightmare that are largely out of the citizenry's control, including automation of workplaces that make traditionally secure jobs obsolete and low-wage labor competition from countries such as China. However, income inequality in the wealthiest nation on Earth is largely a self-inflicted wound.

In a rare case of billionaire candor, mega-investor poster boy Warren Buffett gave an honest assessment of U.S. income inequality back in 2006: "There's class warfare, all right; but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."

Sawyer's documentary series is shining light on the American casualties in this struggle that pits the rich against middle class and working class citizens.