The true Golden Age of America was 1945-1965. It was downhill all the way after that.
I was born in 1965, coincidentally, and saw one of America’s great cities — Dallas, Texas — at her peak, then nosing over, then beginning the long, long fall from space. The pieces have slowly torn away on the way down and my hometown is now nearly unrecognizable. When the final crash comes, nothing of the city I once knew will survive.
You could say the same about America.
I grew up in New York City in the 1960's and 70's. In the 60's it was totally safe for me as a kid to ride my bicycle all through Brooklyn, and my neighborhood was a safe working-to-middle class neighborhood. My mom had no problems with sending me as an 11 year old to ride the subway by myself to get to my aunt's house.
I passed through my old neighborhood 20 years later and remarked that I wouldn't want to be on foot and unarmed there. It had completely changed.