Reagan was a couple of years later.

Coincidentally though, Thatcher happened in 1979, and Reagan is just Thatcher with a penis.

But the real answer is likely that after the financial troubles in the 70s and sky high inflation, there was a number of changes in government to try to have and maintain low inflation - things like higher levels of unemployment being tolerated, employer protection laws not evolving to combat companies' growing anti-union sentiment, fewer and smaller rises in minimum wages.

At the same time, lowering of tax rates on wealthy/high income people meant those people at the top wanted to take more of the pie than ever before, knowing that far less of it would end up being lost as taxes anyway, and that meant less for the workers.