It’s been downhill since the ‘80s. I remember watching the New Years Eve ball drop on tv on 12/31/89 to 1/1/90 and having a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach that it was going to be a rotten decade. Boy, I didn’t know the half of it.
Based on what I’ve been told by those that lived it and what I’ve seen, yep, the 50s was it.
I’d expand it out to include 1945 to1965. That 20 year period was the pinnacle of the pinnacle.
And then the fall began. Just look at 1967, the decline was in full swing.
There was a reprieve, a plateauing, during the 1980s, but it’s been just getting worse and worse since then.