Well, that was the generation who won WWII, so they were a bit more willing to take on the difficult challenges.
Our group will be arguing for years about the impact of rocket engines on global warming before ever attempting a Mars mission.
Well, that was the generation who won WWII
—
Korea, and Nam.
Nixon killed it; Congress defunded it; the public never knew; the USAF rejoiced; the Apollo program proceeded in a pale mockery of what could have been, until it too was killed in a further act of political cowardice.
Notice the theme: failure of political will, political cowardice. until that crap is overcome, it does not matter what ability or not any generation has, nothing will happen with manned space flight.