What hasn’t been mentioned about the 1860s was the horse shit.
Everybody rode horses and horses shit.
Lots and lots of horse shit.
And flies.
I’ve see variants on this a couple of times on this thread, and I’m a bit skeptical. I haven’t, thankfully, been to a lot of funerals, but I don’t recall seeing anyone dressed inappropriately. The walk from my girlfriend’s office to the subway goes past a funeral home, and the mourners I occasionally see there are appropriately dressed.
So either the people in tube tops are the exception rather than the rule, or the world is so degraded that my idea of “appropriate” would have been way too casual a generation or two ago.
I went for jury selection awhile back. And this was the kind of jury selection where you were selected in the morning and you’d be in the jury in the afternoon. And the group was pretty big, 200 folks give or take. There was a pretty decent fraction that were dressed pretty badly IMO. Now, whether its worse now than circa 1950 I don’t know, but I do have my suspicions.
On the upside I did notice that some people that did not seem particulary well off had appeared to do their best to look their best, which did bring a tear of civic pride to my eye.
Yes, I agree. It’s worth the improvement in air quality … except it has nothing to do with emissions.
But the OP asked about our changes in our life times, and I don’t think most of us remember the 1860s
Appropriate attire for a funeral for non-family members, the short version:
Dark blue or any gray, with a white, cream, ice-blue, … oh, you get the idea, damn near white shirt;
No denim - no, none, no matter how your age - no denim;
No red (unless you or the deceased are Asian);
No cleavage, naked thighs, or tattoos - and yes, you should have thought of funerals before you got the tattoo.
Once you cross over the threshold, the fun ends and there’s no going back. 
“Within your lifetime or beyond” is fine. It’d make for an interesting discussion – what did the Roman Empire, say, have that was better than what we got?
Ok, so it’s not the degradation of society one. Because that’s the dress code I’ve seen observed at the funeral home near my GF’s office.
(I’m also puzzled by the anti-tattoo thing I keep seeing, but, well, I would be. Though if mine were visible at a funeral I’d be violating the dress code in other ways.)
You tried buying a decent chariot lately? 
People were not expected to be on call 24/7/365. You called someone and if there was no answer, you called again later.
People had better skills for simple math, spelling, and writing. Calculators and computers have killed that.
The whole dieting/healthy eating thing didn’t exist. People ate what they wanted and fat was taking up two seats on the bus. Now everyone dies from stressing out about what they are eating, and fat is two pounds more than scrawny.
Children were not sexualized. No kiddie beauty pagents, no sexy child actors, singers, etc. Anyone who describes any person under 18 as “hot” (i.e. Gabby Douglas, 16 year old Olympian) gets an earful on the subject.
Things stuck around longer. One of the things I get tired of nowadays is the “carpet bombing” style: hit people with something (a TV show, a movie, a product, a fad) until they’re sick to death of it (which usually lasts a short time) and then it’s gone. When I was a kid I felt like I could see something in a store and if I couldn’t afford it, I could save up for a few weeks and it would still be there. Nowadays I can never be sure of that.
Kids had more unstructured time to just be kids. I grew up as an only child with an overprotective mother, and even then I got outside every day and hung out with my friends. Nobody got signed up for afterschool structured activities. You just went outside and did things.
Toys required more imagination. Example: Legos. when I was a kid, you bought Legos and got a big tub of bricks and maybe a guide to show you some of the things you could build. Now, all the Legos are kits to build specific things.
Also, toys were less gendered. Sure, there was Barbie for girls and Hot Wheels for boys, but you didn’t have the “pink ghetto” you find in toy stores now. Every toy for girls wasn’t pink.
The sexualization of children is much worse now. Little girls with “Juicy” on their butts or dressed in junior ho-wear (no objection to older women wearing whatever they like if it makes them feel good about themselves, but little girls should not look like tramps), younger and younger kids knowing about topics that the kids I grew up with didn’t really encounter until much older (or at least if they did, they kept their mouths shut about it). But on the flipside, the paranoia about child pornography that’s made it a crime to take a picture of your own baby in the bathtub (I think it’s great that real kiddie porn is getting caught and its purveyors punished, but seriously, baby bath pics?)
The internet. I love, love, love the internet. It’s made it possible for introverted me to come out of my shell and meet a whole bunch of really cool people, and to have opportunities I’d never have had without it. I would never voluntarily give it up. But, that said, I’m quite happy it wasn’t around when I was a kid.
In my neck of woods, any outdoor activity I care about was much better in the past. For instance, huge flocks of woodland game birds existed, that have now petered out to heavily regulated, much-worried remnants of the past population. This is due to massive changes in forestry, not due to overhunting. (increased traffic out there also kills a tremendous number of grouse & capercaillie every year).
Back in the '80’s when I was a kid, the local suburbia had lots of undeveloped lots (heh) of all shapes and sizes, patches of real woodland between & behind houses, perfect for us city youngsters to roam and learn basic woodcraft in. These lots have all but disappeared, as I learned when visiting my old hunting grounds after 25 years. Where once was lush forests teeming with pheasants, squirrels, wood pigeon and rabbits, there now was pavement. I felt almost physically sick.
Agree
My grandparents are grateful for vaccines, equal pay acts, microwaves, etc . The Polio vaccine was BIG deal.
I also like Laws that protect women and children and people of color.
Unless you were sent to work in the factory and this depends what generation you were born and your social-economic class. My grandfather born in Missouri during the dust bowl? Yeah, his childhood ended early.
Dinosaurs.
I’m only 26 so I can only comment on what sucks.
I think TV has brainwashed a lot of people. Many people are engulfed in materialism and conspicuous consumption. This mindset causes a disconnect between people and further propels this rat race we call civilization.
Like another poster, I also think people share too much because they imitate what they see. There does seem to be a lack of class and respect.
The food issue really irks me as well. Diet is possibly the most important thing in a persons day to day life. We have all kinds of knowledge about nutrition and yet people are getting fatter and unhealthier in general. This leads to many problems in people’s behavior, attitude, and unseen trouble to come.
Although civil rights are getting better, the wage gap continues to grow. Which is bad because money seems to talk a lot more than what are our supposed laws.
You can still buy buckets of random bricks. And anyhow you’re under no obligation to follow the instructions. I gave up on that long ago. I just make my own models now.