I think his point is that people have felt like the world is going to shit for a very long time, it's just that with the presence of hindsight we can see that i

I think his point is that people have felt like the world is going to shit for a very long time, it's just that with the presence of hindsight we can see that in the past everything worked out, but we can't see the future so our present is troubling. But none of these feelings are new, just different problems manifesting the same.