There have been "real" gains since 1970, at least in the world I live in. Houses are larger, better appointed, cars are much higher tech/safer, foods are... well, fancier if not necessarily better in all ways, and people seem to spend much more time and money on services like restaurants, movies / entertainment, etc. than they did 40 years ago.
The house we bought in 1973 was in a "golf course neighborhood" where people with a lot of money would buy an annual membership to the club for roughly 1/2 what our house cost to build. Main benefit of membership was to have a place to go where you didn't have to be with people who couldn't afford it. Though things like that still exist, it seems less prevalent than it used to be. I'd call that an improvement, too.
It's certainly not rosy all around, but it has been awhile since our last big urban riot, hasn't it? We managed to get through "Occupy" without anybody being shot or killed, and I think the U.S. is showing signs of getting out of Afghanistan before completely imploding economically, unlike the U.S.S.R. just recently did.
I'm all for adopting the German approach to unemployment: persistent rate of 8%? Try programs to encourage workweek reductions: 40*0.92 = 36.8. Change labor laws that quote 40 hours/week to quote 36 hours 40 minutes instead, raise corporate tax 5% across the board, then give the extra revenue earned back as credits to companies that implement 37 hour or lower workweeks for their employees. As an option, 2 weeks standard paid vacation could get expanded to 6 (50*0.08 = 4), and that would stimulate the domestic tourism industries.
If businesses and corporations whine that they can't be competitive while implementing these programs, somebody needs to remind them that taxes are also used to pay for the unemployed, those lacking health care, and the police that keep vagrants out of their doorways. Isn't it better to spread the wealth through employment than to use taxes to pay for the care/feeding/housing/control of the poor?
