It is human nature for many to be pessimistic, but the authors of these books are not wrong. There has NEVER been a better time to be a human being than today in almost every country.
However, there will be always be a disconnect with liberal academia. They live for anger and self-loathing and many of them have prestigious degrees in navel gazing so they can preach to the rest of us (and teach our children) about how and why we are so evil and why life sucks.
The problem is that for all this wonderful stuff to continue requires civilization.
We are at that awkward stage between "Player Piano" and "Star Trek". We have, to borrow a term from Dickens, surplus population. It's not that there is too little food clothing and shelter to keep them comfortable, but the social rot that spreads as a result of entitlement and sloth lead to our present troubles with the terrorist blm and antifas.
If we were to give them free everything (which they already have for the most part) they would still be rioting and murdering, just because. Idle hands create spoiled bands of ferals.
The rest of us just keep plugging along, working, and trying to make our little corners of the world pleasant and productive to produce that plenty which other enjoy - and then destroy.
Maintaining optimism is a daily struggle. I do not have to work in a coal mine, or toil in a field (thank you John Deere), so there is that.