how do we separate (and address) the core issue from a mountain of "symptoms," like the above... where is the root problem?

I think it has to do with authoritarian thinking. If we can evolve past our reliance on that, we can make great progress. No human being has the right to rule over another human being. We own ourselves. This comes down to the philosophy of liberty:

Inequality may be high, but those "at the bottom" are much higher now than they ever were throughout history. Whenever I get discouraged about this stuff, I remind myself of Steven Pinker's book The Better Angels of our Nature and I watch this video: