It's a political issue absolutely. The problem is easily fixed but congress and Trump (he's not the first who refuses, just the latest) will not take action. The easiest fix is to raise the limit on income that is taxed to fund social security. Now it is capped at somewhere around 110,000 (not sure of the exact figure). Anything over that is not taxed for social security. When the caps were set, no one ever though many people would make over 100,000 and have challenges raising a family and saving for retirement. The second thing is include all income that is declared on a tax return as taxable for social security. Jeff Bezos for example only pays himself 85K a year, so his social security contribution is fairly small by comparison of what he actually earns.
We need to get younger workers more involved in their retirement planning much earlier. A younger friend who was a neighbor growing up had a massive paper route when he was a kid. He was like a venture capitalist of paper routes. He took over other kids routes when they got tired of doing it every morning for days on end in all kinds of conditions. We used to tease him about how much money he made - and this was when EVERYONE read the newspaper - and retiring on a paperboys pension. That's not quite what happened but he did learn the most important lesson one needs to learn - pay yourself first. Before you buy anything for fun, clothes, electronics, entertainment, set aside money to the future in a separate place like a due bill everytime you get paid. He did that all his life and it has paid of very well for him and his family. Most people find reasons not to save and invest. That is a critical habit that has been lost in my lifetime.
The GOP has always hated social security and medicare, George W. wanted to put some of social security revenues into the stock market but backed off due to the outcry. Critics rightly pointed out the fees would stifle any returns on such small amounts. Social Security was always meant to be a fallback plan - money in addition to what you saved. It has become the mainstay and so needs to be treated as such. Trump wants to make big cuts in benefits, using the savings for deficit reduction (read - more tax cuts for the rich). If we don't get rid of him and the GOP he will succeed.