I'm not American but European, but in the 80s and 90s I remember there was a general perception of progress, of things getting better and better. We got some in

I'm not American but European, but in the 80s and 90s I remember there was a general perception of progress, of things getting better and better. We got some inventions that were a revolution for people's everyday life, like computers, mobile phones and the Internet. Achievements like putting a man on the moon were still rather recent and still seemed like they would be repeated. Religion appeared to be on a decline in the West and freedom of expression on the rise, without being so much menaced by religious bigots on the one side and political correctness on the other. People weren't worried about terrorism (at least compared to now), one could go to the airport and ride a plane in like 10 or 15 minutes. I think there was a general change in attitude at the turn of the millennium, of course the symbolic turning point was 9/11, although it would probably have happened anyway. But the 9/11 changes were especially visible, we went from being a society that took bold steps forward to a society that walked cautiously and scaredly - and that's even in Europe, I suppose it was even more noticeable in America. I don't know if there would have been as much as a consensus about being in the best of all possible times, but I think if you asked in the 90s many people would answer that they were better than any past time, and still improving. You would get that kind of answer much less often now. All this in the West, of course. I suppose if you ask e.g. in China, things would be quite different.