Too bad this isn't a real book, I'd make it mandatory to read it.
The way I see it, the past seems better becasue we had less responsibilities, many of us at least. I now know my childhood and adolescence and then college time were great thanks to my parents that worked for me and cared for me, now that I'm an adult that has to earn his living, it's no longer so easy. And the crushing pressure of responsibility, paying the mortgage etc... it all piles up. (though whether it is as traumatic to you as it is to some is a personal thing).
While specific problems might be different depending on the time, imo this is more a universal rule than something that just recently started working.
As for the specifics in this case: no, it wasn't better, but this depends on the part of the world you come from mostly. My country was behind the red curtain, we had hundreds of thousands of soviet troops stationed all over the country and they only withdrew in late 1992.
The music has always been terrible, people complain about biebers and minajs nowadays but back then the amount of discopopcrap music was staggering and the invention of the "disco-polo" (which is still going strong, check youtube if you think you can handle it) genre was just a cherry on this inedible cake.
Now, from the perspective of a Pole, it's better than it was. In fact, it's the best we've had in ~200 or so years. Though if you ask an average Pole about it, I doubt you'll hear anything but complaining ... but that's just human nature. people romanticize the past as they view it through nostalgia colored glasses.