This is more of a failure of government rather than a failure of capitalism.
In democracies, people can vote to tax the wealthy corporations and give food vouchers to the middle and lower classes.
The problem with a marketplace with too few unique sellers is they don't have to agree to raise prices, they just know no one is going to lower them to try to gain market share.
The government should have done something or broken up larger companies and it did nothing. Capitalism isn't the problem, weak governments and terrible leaders are the problem.
Biden could have spearheaded hauling the leaders of every supermarket into a congressional hearing to ask questions that would have resulted in downward price movement. Congress could have passed "increased profit taxes" so that if corporations selling inelastic goods had profit increases over 10% and price increases over 10% on the top 5 of their best selling goods, then a large tax would kick in. Price gouging taxes could have taxed the profits on any store that raised prices by over 20% per quarter. Any of these things would have reduced the problem. I am surprised Elizabeth Warren didn't get anything passed because despite all of her past problems (rising in academia though misrepresentation), she's incredibly smart with policy, she just doesn't know how to scream and yell at people to get her point across.
But most government leaders are feckless and lazy and stupid. That's the sad reality.
If a democrat got on TikTok screaming about these policies and yelling that Republicans are being selfish and fucking over the middle class, they would have been passed. I have thought about going on TikTok myself and ranting and raving but I have a complex past and I'm not sure how people would respond and I am concerned about TikTok's collection of data.
There's not been actual LEGISLATION that could be effective.
The lazy ineffective government controlling even more of society through Marxism is not the answer. Better people need to run for office.
Ultimately, what is going to happen is somehow the Democrats are going to get Newsom into office to try to be Bill Clinton II and he'll enact mediocre policies that will be slightly better than the shit that's been going on and he'll be praised for being slightly less than mediocre. But the downward spiral of society will continue because ultimately, the math of global warming will kill us all, so none of this will matter. Newsom isn't smart enough to veer away from the cliff of doom the world is barreling towards, but he'll make some meaningless gestures and look good with great hair and be self-aggrandizing and people will feel better prior to everyone dying.