Your experiences are anecdotal but may not be the average... the relative number of people in homelessness has reduced from the 90's to today, that is certainly good.. (It has had a slight peak recently post pandemic).

Purchasing power has climbed, hunger has reduced, I think all of these are important metrics to consider...

I think people are much more polarized and that social media has brought out terrible polarity, but it doesnt necessarily mean the average person is not living better than 30 yrs ago.