A  national accounts framework  that can show the income distribution by decile is a priori  fascinating. Piketty, Saez and Zucman have done that for the US. It allows to look at income shares through time. They show that the first 5 déciles share in national income intersects this share of the top 1% in the 90’s. The first five déciles share went from circa 20% in the 70’s to a little more than 12% in 2014. The top 1% has had a profile that mirrored this trajectory from 11% to 20%. 
A comparison of the first five déciles share between the US and France shows that French people have had really a better situation. 
The summary of a detailed document is available here