Yes, I think it did change. It also changed for the better, of course, with all the newer technologies we now have - but these would have happened regardless -

Yes, I think it did change. It also changed for the better, of course, with all the newer technologies we now have - but these would have happened regardless - they are not a byproduct of the monetary system. However: what we are eating, for example, is of much worse quality. Products that we use every day are of inferior quality (although some are more technologically advanced). While you could argue that more advanced products are inherently less reliable, for having more "moving parts", the decline in quality happened for all products and services, not just for the complex ones. The quality of what we consume intellectually has also decreased: what passes as "art" today can only be called so because it absorbed "easy money", but it is far from what was being produced not long ago. Western classical music, for example, clearly started declining around the time purchasing power started declining. The avant-garde of Stravinsky and his contemporaries was still innovative, intellectually stimulating, and beautiful compared to the "avant-garde" of John Cage and other such imposters. Same happened in painting, same happened in architecture...