Many people do say they live paycheck to paycheck in surveys, this is true. But in the same surveys they say they have three months expenses in savings accounts. So it's pretty unclear what they think they mean by this.
They really mean "I can't save enough money to meaningfully change my lifestyle or advance my status in an amount of time I feel is reasonable."
Basically they are lamenting that the American dream is dead, or a lie, and that they will always be working and never live the lifestyles portrayed by their favorite influencers.
There is some truth to the idea that many people will never own as much property or live as lavishly as their parents did however.
