I don't know, but it fees like people are more equal now than back then at least to me. Or more people have a much higher standard of living at least.
Since 1980 pay and productivity have been decoupled in the global north such that the wealthy have continued to grow richer while the median worker hasn’t seen their real wages rise, despite being more productive. In fact much of our rise in standard of living prior to 1980 is not due to the allowing concentrated wealth to run rampant but people fighting the wealthy for things like worker rights, democratic rights, social programs.
If we look at the global south on the other hand since 1980 we see a great rise out of poverty. This has happened primarily due to China’s socialist policies which have pulled 800 million people out of poverty.
Allowing a small wealthy minority to run one’s country is undemocratic as they are able to use their outsized money and power to control the government and further grow their own wealth. It’s precisely why we face problems like authoritarianism, climate change, and austerity - toxic transitions all funded by monied interests.
Does the world really seem like it’s continuing to progress to you? Is our choice really so limited as either ‘hand over the reigns of society to billionaires’ or ‘revert to medieval peasantry’? Consider the improvements in the quality of life we’ve seen in the past century. People came together and fought for those improvements. They didn’t trust and depend on their monied masters to drop crumbs their way. That never happens. They fought for better lives and achieved them.
Quality of life is determined by how well off the poor or average people can live. How "easy" their life is and what luxuries they can afford, how long they now can live etc.
I think the advent of technology and mass commercial farming food production and all that allows the general population to live easier lives than what you had to do to survive hundreds and thousands of years ago in like medieval times or ancient Egyptian times etc.
I think any little regression in quality of life in these last few decades is but a small downward blip in the greater and steady rise during all of human history.
