Is the US Facing Generational Warfare?

The Obama and Romney campaigns are battling over Medicare and, less openly, the so-called "Third Rail of Politics:" Social Security. In 1940, there were 159 workers for every elderly recipient of Social Security, plenty of younger people to pay benefits for the old. An aging population has radically changed that. Now, those 159 workers have dwindled to only three, and they're paying for their parents' Medicare and Social Security. In the meantime, the elderly have become better off than their children and grandchildren. Is this a recipe for generational warfare? Is there a need to reform the social programs before it's too late?