What's surprising is that mainstream/orthodox economists have not really veered from the neoclassical position that private debt levels are essentially irrelevant from a macro perspective, on the basis that someone's debt is another person's asset and therefore any accumulation of debt is offset by an equal accumulation of savings supplying that debt.

But it's entirely obvious that the household debt overhang from the financial crisis is entirely what is holding demand/consumption back. We have had a historic buildup in HHold leverage for the last 30 years as consumers used debt as a substitute for stagnant wages, and after the housing crisis all this debt is no longer underpinned by adequate collateral.

Head in the sand.