> These numbers have all increased since 1989 as well — total wealth (60.8% to 67.3%), stocks (81.7% to 87.2%), private businesses (78.4% to 84.4%) and real estate (38.2% to 43.9%).

So no. It has not always been like this.

Pareto wealth distribution also gets more extreme heading into retirement ages due to the nature of compounding on productive assets.