Unfortunately, they probably didn’t feel it at all.
They could live off their fortunes for 1000 years without ever slipping into “middle class” so a few years of slower profits wouldn’t have any real effect on their day to day lives.
Getting upset that their wealth isn’t accumulating fast enough is also their natural state of being – before, during and after COVID. If they weren’t throwing tantrums because people weren’t willing to die a gasping, terrified death in the name of corporate profits, they would have been throwing a tantrum because they weren’t allowed to pay children half the minimum wage to mine national parks.
And of course, they come out the other side with even more leverage. Thousands of cafes and restaurants went out of business, but Starbucks and McDonald’s didn’t. The shortages and scalping made companies realise they could have been squeezing people even harder, a mistake they seem determined to never make again.
Pandemics aren’t the solution, prising neoliberals out of positions of power is.