Final answer:
Economic alienation in industrial societies is primarily due to the separation of workers from the products they produce and the lack of control over their labor, as explained by Marx's theory of alienation.
Step-by-step explanation:
Most generally, economic alienation in industrial societies comes about as a result of the separation between workers and the products they create, as well as the loss of control over the labor process. Karl Marx's theory of alienation discusses several aspects of this phenomenon. One key aspect is alienation from the product of one's labor, where the worker has no relation to or control over what he or she is producing.
For instance, a factory worker might be involved only in a small part of constructing a watch or a car without any meaningful connection to the end product. Moreover, workers experience alienation from the process of their labor because they do not own the means of production and can't decide how the work should be conducted. This loss of agency and control leads to a lack of sense of self, as their labor becomes just another commodity in the capitalist system.