As a Brit I wouldn't recognise a US class issue if it bit me, but I thought I'd say something about the soaps here and their portrayal of class. Yes, there are an awful lot of working class characters in them, and class conflict is portrayed in them. Factory worker vs factory owner, that sort of thing.
But it is also true anyone in one of those soaps who is aspirational and wants to become middle class tends to be punished for that. They lose their money, they get ill, they get somethinged. It's rare to see someone do well and thrive. Possibly this is due to the demands of a soap, that there should be angst. Or possibly there is something there about keeping in your place.
And as to Shameless being a comedy, well yes, but it is not a sitcom. Sitcoms here are about the pretentions of middle class people, the gap between how they would wish to be seen and how they are. Shameless is much darker than that.