But they appear unsure about how to respond. Some in Birmingham, where the party gathered for its annual conference, believe that measures like the energy price cap have helped to incubate what they see as an anti-free enterprise virus.
For this school of thinking, the answer is to combat Labour’s renationalisation push by finishing the revolution unleashed by Margaret Thatcher. In this world view, private monopolies, like water and energy networks, should be broken up to give consumers greater choice.
Within government, however, there is nervousness about this strain of thinking. At what is shaping up to be a profoundly disruptive point in national life when Britain exits the EU, they sense little appetite in the country for this radical approach.
With its wistful nostalgia for a more secure past, the latest Labour party political broadcast tapped into this mood.
This leaves the Conservatives in a bind, caught between siren voices to the left and right.
The review of regulation, announced by Philip Hammond, can hardly be expected to set voters’ pulses racing. The chancellor didn’t even mention it during his own conference speech, delivered to a sparsely attended meeting of activists.
However a refresh of the now 30-year-old privatisation regime could get a hearing after March when Brexit may finally start to slip down the political agenda.