The problem is that our society has enforced the bad habits in people, made them lazier. Do I think that people were better 300 years ago? I think they had to work harder and and so appreciated life more. Some may have hated it but there are those types now.
Need Proof? America is now the FATTEST nation in the world, only technically beat by Samoa, who carry a genetic predisposition towards fatness.
However, Americans watch tv, watch movies, drive everywhere, take escalators, elevators, buses. Americans eat more fast food then any other nation, drives more cars then any other nation, thats percentage based not population based. But its spreading, Europe is fast catching up to our fatness and laziness. Its just our society encourages it through and through. Arent 'pretty', are have any 'talent', watch tv, escape from your life by playing video games and locking yourself in you living room with the television. Why think for yourself.
Is TV a drug? My wife was talking yesterday and said to me "I hate the tv, when I come home, if I turn it on, I dont want to turn it off." Some people get regular 'doses' of tv, some have watch thier shows........

Sorry MP, you optimism is laudable but I dont feel the same way you do about our society. It can do some great things but is drifting slowly away from that to, now it is becoming a platform for self serving greed and laziness the world has yet to see.