In the early 50s in the city, my dad had to shovel coal into the coal furnace. The ice man came every other day. Mom and I had to walk to the store (no car) to buy meat fresh every day since the icebox couldn't keep it fresh very long. Couldn't keep ice cream. If my dad needed a piece of lumber, we took two different streetcars (no car, as I said) to the lumber yard and brought it back on the streetcars. In the winter time the streetcars were heated by little coal stoves. The scrap collector (paper, rags! Our guy never said "paper eggs") drove a wagon pulled by a horse. Same with the produce guy ("apples, oranges, peaches, plums, and nectarines --- and fresh - straw - berries!" he would yell). There were no interstate highways. The bums were actually gentlemen, though, and my mom would give them handouts. And no, we never locked our doors. We didn't have any keys for the house.
When we sold the house in 1961, crime in the neighborhood was rampant, so we had to get keys made. Our next door neighbors, who were a very nice young black couple, had their house cleaned out by burglars while they slept. Two houses down a guy was sent to prison for murder. I was scared to death to leave the house. In 1961 I didn't see the quality of life you mention.
I will take my quality of life today over that of the '50s any day.
You are one person out of many. Anecdotal cases don't mean a thing. For the vast majority of us, it's a mix bag. Some things are better, some not so good. The overall crime rate was much less! Yes there were pockets of crime even in 1960 but there are many more today.
I was in diapers at the time but I think things were better in 1960 for a vast majority of Americans. At least we were a nation in 1960 and not the mess we are today.