What I'm missing is the feeling that we possess enough skills/knowledge to handle tasks.

It's a good feeling when you know how to produce food, how to build tools, how to repair machines and buildings.
I used to have that feeling while I was younger as my country was lagging behind for about 50 years.
A simple sense of competence, sustainability and accomplisment.

Today, in everyday life (and especially in academia), I feel that I'm powerless. Feeling that I'm nothing but a small bolt embedded into the giant machine.

I never feel that I know enough. I know that I can't do anything from start to finish and there is no real accomplishment.

The world itself also became too uniform. The same food, clothes, customs... There is almost nothing to spark our imagination and desire to travel and explore.

It would be fantastic to experience what those generations from the XVIII and XIX century experienced.