Do you really think the US was 'promoting unsustainable development and poor land use', or do you think maybe it was more the case that things may have changed

Do you really think the US was 'promoting unsustainable development and poor land use', or do you think maybe it was more the case that things may have changed in the last 50-100 years, and we may have gotten a little wiser? It's utterly silly to think that building suburbs in the 50s and 60s was malignant, purposeful behavior. Things change, our population has increased and our understanding about economics, technology and our resources has evolved.