We have been through this phase multiple times in our history. Rome started as a group of people who decided build a system for the betterment of their society and grew into something monumental. At the end they suffered from the same debauchery we are seeing now and it destroyed their empire. Alexander The Great died from following the same path and his empire fell to ruin. I am not referring to the 1950s as any type of golden age but as a reference point as to how fast we are falling away from traditional values and going down the same path we have seen repeated throughout our history. This is not progress it is regressive.