By break the cycle you mean return to high growth glory years? Either massive coordinated government spending or some crazy scientific break through (arrival of quantum computing or graphene battery technology)to spur new levels and areas of spending. Right now we're just replacing shit. Even if people paid off their debt and had more disposable income what would they do?
We want individuals to be fiscally responsible, save for their own retirement, be homeowners, invest in their children, pay more to encourage whatever social just cause or eco-friendly initiatives , while maintaining the same levels of aimless consumption from those great decades of massive economic growth. I don't know about anyone else's financial situation but I don't have nearly enough money to do all that.
I've got a pretty complex view as to what can be done to help the middle class.
In regards to health care and an aging population, there are a multitude of policy initiatives I would explore, thankfully this government seems to be heading in that direction.
Boomers are going to take up the vast majority of the health care spending so let's try to free up some money by encouraging younger generation to live a healthier lifestyle. I'd like to see some tax incentives to stay fit. (x$ of dollars back if you can run a 10k under an hour or that certain health parameters are within the healthy range)
A huge amount of money needs to be spent on health care at home and follow up care (an area where technology can be of tremendous help, slap a health tracker on all these old buggers). Spending money on someone that's just had a 1st massive heart attack is fine, wasting money on someone that comes into the hospital every month with diabetes related complications because they can't stick to a fucking diet is retarded and a massive waste of ressources.
Health care is no longer about treating people when they're at the hospital, it's about making sure they don't end up there.