In life change is constant and so therefore it's expedient that we will continue experiencing different patterns of changes in all spheres of life and the economy is not exclusive to these changes.
Unfortunately, the changes we see today in our economy when we compare the past to the present we can vivid agree that things are rather changing from bad to worse with life getting harder and hasher than it has ever been despite the technological developments that society have evolve in.
I don't know about your view but the truth is that in my part of the world inflation is bitting really hard and as a consequence people are finding it hard to provide healthy three square meal, pay tuition fees and utility bills (some have dropout while others homeless), or even affording the basic necessities of life entirely without milking themselves, it was this bad when I was growing up as a little boy. Times have really changed.
I think the economy have become worse than how it was some years back because of so many challenges. Just some few years ago the world was combating pandemic which many are trying to recover from it. The pandemic disrupted so many activities which affected the economy so much because of the lookdown.
Some policies of the monetary system have also affected the economy, wars and conflict have also play a role for this hard time we experience today. The politicians we have today are different from the ones we had before now, people who want to be in power for their own selfish interests but not for the interest of the people. Change is just the reason why we face difficult time in this modern day, i just hope everything change just like how it was before.
The Covid pandemic is not the only pandemic the world has ever experienced, there have been many pandemics that caused much greater loss and damage in the past. Also, things take time to recover and grow, we were worse in 2022 but things are slowly getting much more stable. So to say that things are worse than before is too hasty, I don't think that's true.