It's funny, just a couple of hundred years ago, the belief was that the human race used to be happy and successful, and then declined. For intellectuals: Greece, Rome, even the Central/South American civilizations. For every one else: Eden or Atlantis, etc.
Progress isn't always a straight line. Early automobiles were poor replacements for horses or horse-powered vehicles, but the potential was there.
"The young people of today love luxury. They have bad manners, they scoff at authority and lack respect for their elders. Children nowadays are really tyrants, they no longer stand up when their elders come into the room where they are sitting, they contradict their parents, chat together in the presence of adults, eat gluttonously and tyrannise their teachers." -- Socrates, 470-399BC
Progress isn't always a straight line. Early automobiles were poor replacements for horses or horse-powered vehicles, but the potential was there.