It's not as simple as it often gets presented.

True, it's always possible to find parallel complaints from hundreds of years ago about how things are getting worse in any respect, but that doesn't mean it's all a subjecvtive illusionhwen people voice those complaints.

The ways of society go in cycles as often than not - things get all loose and that turns to messy, and then there's a reaction and they get all firm and that turns to rigid, and so forth. Libertarian parents have children who grow up to be authoritarian parents ,authoritarian parents have children who grow up to be libertarian parents - that's oversimplifying, but it summarises how it often works.

Drop into 1807, 1907 and 2007 in your time machine, for example.