Technically life conditions should have been improved, thanks to the nice systems in place... It's a interesting topic to deliberate, I'm young(ish) but where I live there are all kinds of people, I kind of remember the "feudal" system we used to live in, at least the remnants, I can almost hear the same story from the people that lived through the socialism/communism days, basically everyone was treated equally, if you don't appreciate the "state virtues" you are against the system, so you're bad and it's ok to steal from you... that was marginal, but not pretty, so most people were in line and working for life :|

Nowadays it's more opt-in, but we are over-reliant on "allies" since we have to be kept back and stupid, basically we have lived in a corrupt system for a few generations again, so we are still corrupting our system... although on a outside level, we are getting investments, developing industry and blah blah... basically future debt...

Also, we are losing the advantages from the internet, which was decentralisation and freedom of information, but hey, we have to keep children safe, and we are just working on AI to improve the life of seniors and so on ...

Luckily there is always the "underground" :D, ie. listening to "free" people, picking what you want rather than what is being feeded to you, even if it's next to impossible when you factor in predictions and profiles ...

And in the end of the day, talk is cheap, we are responsible for our freedom, even if I, like most people, am scared to own up and be responsible to my own life... it's always better to delegate and blame others and the system..

But yeah, evil never sleeps :D and I'm constantly chattering away ...

Here is a nice quote, from a nice life, basically when you do something great with the opportunity and the freedom you are given, at least it looks that way from a distance.
https://www.quora.com/Ben-Franklin-said-most-men-die-at-25-but-just-aren%E2%80%99t-buried-until-they%E2%80%99re-75-Hopes-and-dreams-often-die-by-35-so-assuming-no-major-life-changes-is-there-really-a-difference-between-dying-at-35-or-dying-at-75

From what I gather, we can't go back, even if we want it.