Possibly ignorant researchers

 If high inequality is detrimental to the well-being of a large majority of the populace and if democracy is about realizing “the will of the people,” why has inequality been allowed to increase in most democracies? Put differently, if most people would benefit from enhancing equality, why have voters not elected politicians who would implement policies to do that? This is one of the most significant paradoxes of our time.

I suspect, but have not proven, that most research on democracy includes the USA which is distinctly a republic and does not exercise proportional voting.   The non-democracy of the USA is about 25% of their results, mis-classified.vSo all these studies are skewed because researches do not read the Constitution or understand American history.