Better Then? Yes and No.

 h/t CW

Polio. Smallpox. Communists. Permanent military draft for 26 years ('48-'73. You could look it up.) Endless Democrat Congresses. Rotary phones, from Ma Bell only, with monopoly pricing to match. 8" B&W TV. AM Radio. Yesterday's news at the speed of teletype. Adding machines and slide rules. Duck-and-Cover. Air travel by prop plane. Train and sea passenger travel normal. Bumps in the two-lane highway big enough to eat the car, with an endless progression of one-horse towns with crooked cops running speed traps. Jim Crow. "Colored only" sports leagues, restrooms, dining rooms, bathrooms, bus seats, and drinking fountains.

OTOH:

No digital surveillance and tracking of everything from cradle to grave. Always paying cash. 5¢ candy bars. 50¢ meals. Houses cheap enough a guy at the gas station could afford to live in one. Fishing and hunting season were celebrated. Long arms in your truck window, a pistol in your pocket, and a real knife on your belt were all legal. Not locking your doors and leaving the keys in the car resulted in...nothing bad happening. Terrorism??Never heard of it. Knowing all your neighbors, and them knowing you. Families that lasted a lifetime, for all races, because divorce required good cause. Never pressing "1" for English. Never hearing a phone ring or someone jabbering on one anywhere but home or work. Abortions rarer than hen's teeth.

Not everything was better then.

But certain aspects of life were a notable improvement.