All this talk about the good old days is the work of the yetzer hara.  He wants people to speak like this to make us suffer and worry all the more about our livelihoods.  He would like to make us feel that there is no hope at all now, heaven forbid.

This is all false.  God continuously sustains the world and people rise and fall in every age.  If you look carefully at the past, you will find that it also contained much poverty and suffering.

The opposite is true.  God now directs the world better than ever.  ~ R’ Nachman of Breslov zt”l