This is all an argument that there were perceptually worse times before, so how could it be bad now?
WW2 setup an era defined by one very unusual property: the absolute dominance of the United States and it's economy as the global hegemon.
But the US is not adapted to the notion that what it achieved from that era was a set of historically unique advantages that are not a property of "American exceptionalusm" but rather what you get when you're one of the few nations on the planet which didn't have its cities bombed.
WW2 setup an era defined by one very unusual property: the absolute dominance of the United States and it's economy as the global hegemon.
But the US is not adapted to the notion that what it achieved from that era was a set of historically unique advantages that are not a property of "American exceptionalusm" but rather what you get when you're one of the few nations on the planet which didn't have its cities bombed.