That's no surprise. Currencies only started being floated in the late 20th century. It doesn't mean the gold standard worked well - it was just the prevailing system before Bretton Woods.
Yes, fiat currencies. In purchasing parity terms, the 30 years before WW1 (gold standard) where as globalized and productive as we were before 2008. I think it is dangerous to attribute our wealth to the management of centralized money managers. I`m all for competition (please let me fail with my stupid barbaric gold money). It`s them who are not.