What was the appeal of a man like Ronald Reagan after the 1970's?

The 1970s were a difficult time for the United States as a whole, especially in economic terms.

It was in the 1970s when the oil crisis happened (in 1973), which led to scarcity of gasoline, and economic decline, and it was also in the 1970s when the United States lost some of its power in manufacturing. European countries like Germany, and Italy, became industrial powerhouses that rivaled the U. S., as well as Japan.

Ronald Reagan was a conservative who had been an actor before becoming the governor of California from 1967 to 1975. He had an economic ideology based on the works of authors like Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. This economic ideology defends free markets, free enterprise, cutting taxes, reducing regulations, and so on.

In times of economic crisis like the 1970s, many people viewed this ideas as the solution to the problems that the country was facing. That is why he was popular: he espoused those ideas.