I'm pretty sure reading a week's worth of papers from the 50s would show us a long list of grim things that were not _obviously_ going to be better.
(At least my country was in the middle of decolonization wars that are still leaving their trace today - so I doubt people were assuming "oh, sure, it's going to be fine in X years.")
But it did not really get "better" or "worse" in absolute terms.
