Hi PD a balanced post. However I still maintain life is better now in spite of the social problems you outline. Affluence creates different problems to those of the past. Today you may experience the problem of kids taking drugs as an outlet but previously you had wars and pestilence that wiped out populations on a massive scale. Tragedy all round. Today people have choices and a minority of the population get into strife for a range of reasons. Diminished Spirituality as you mentioned may be a factor but it bears taking into account that in the past institutionalised spirituality hid a lot of the horrific abuse to mainly our youth.
Single mums were demonised. Children were cruelly physically and sexually abused while under the care of various churches and it was all hushed up. Look at the case of our first Australian Saint. She tried to expose abuse and was excommunicated. Todays society sees her as a Saint because I see todays society in spite of areas of problems being a much better one than the past.
We have laws that aim to prevent discrimination and abuse and society is much more affluent, with better health care, a much longer life span and people can do things that were for most not possible long ago. People travel all round the world. Tourism is a world wide industry and most people travel overseas on holidays. The grind of the past did not allow this for the majority.
IMO there is no doubt that as a whole we are much better off now than previously. Whether it is sustainable is another matter. Our planet can only take so much.
