I have to also wonder how much can be attributed to liberalsim on this one. Materialism definitely has a big part in this. People want all these things that they seem to "need", and all the better for the corporations that happily sell these products to them.
Additionally I have to wonder how much simple nostalgia plays a role into the writing of this article. Everything always seems better when looking at it in the past.
Everything wasn't better back then.
Only the most important things were better back then.