@atomicpoet I I want to agree with you but I think compared to all the "things were better before" that came before we do actually live at a turning point in history and not a good one. Western democracies are very probably ending. The Western world as we know it is very probably ending. The climate collapse is a few decades if not a few years away. Environmental collapse and the Sixth Extinction are already on the way.
I don't know if the present is better or worse than the past, but the future will only get worse, and it won't get better until well after we're dead.
So it's understandable to see the past with fondness when the future is beyond terrifying.