People didn't need as much stuff. Many could get by without a car. The food was made by scratch, and a radio was the only entertainment appliance. Plus, since women generally were not working, there wasn't the glut of labor supply.
Housing is a main culprit. For some strange magical reason my house appreciated around $400,000 in two years without adding on a darn thing. Rent prices are going through the roof, this is in an outlying area a decent way from the city SUBURBS.
We mismanaged and did the “better to burn out, than fade away” stuff while throwing in “empowerment”, not keeping score in little league games so feelings don't get hurt, worshiped comparative advantage (Ricardo wrote two darn paragraphs on that yet that is all that was focused on, he even emphasizes *with conditions*) while growing government to obscene levels.