The sunny slopes of right now

I am by no means referring to the political landscape with this post (GGE is non-political) but I wonder, when I hear people talk about how much better things were in the past, just what they are referring to?
Did things cost less in the past? Sure...but we made a lot less. In fact, more people are making more cash now than ever before.
I hear it referred to in terms of the caliber of leaders we have, but I suspect leaders have always been about the same. Some we know about, some we don't, and some we have just fictionalized so that they are more like a fictionalized hero than a real human being.
I heard it today referred to in terms of our "morale fiber". I really wondered about that one. Crime rates are extremely low compared to historical crime rates. The example someone gave of our weakening morale fiber was the acceptance of alternative lifestyles. Not to nitpick, but I don't think increased acceptance equals lax morals. We should have a better examples of lax morals than that if moral fiber is what used to be so wonderful.
So...is this just a rant? I hope you know me better than that. It is part cautionary and part suggestion.
The caution is to not get too invested in how great things "used to be". Often "the sunny slopes of long ago" (as my friend Augustus McCrae says) look better than they actually were. This is a gift of human memory. In fact, those times were probably about like these times.
The suggestion is to identify that which makes one think today is so bad...and then go work on changing that thing. If you think the world needs leadership, then become a great leader. If the worlds needs better morals, then take charge! Establish a tribe! Lead us! If you can't change the thing that bothers you so much, then change what you can. A million little positive changes can go along way.

John Wooten says that "Things tend to turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out"

Long ago is not coming back, no matter if we agree that it was great or not. All we have is "right now". Let's make the best of it.