Time present and time past...

Each time there's a peccadillo or a horrific act committed by some misled young men, the oldies get down to their characteristic bashing of the present, as if all was hunky dory when they were young. They start haranguing the youth with their pet lecture on the degeneration in all spheres-culture, morality and what not? Macaulay rightly talks about the fact that society, while constantly moving forward with eager speed, constantly looks backward with tender regret."If we were perfectly satisfied with the present, we should cease to contrive, to labour... ...And it is natural that, being dissatisfied with the present, we should form a too favourable estimate of the past." So fair enough, guys. But i still don't find a convincing answer from these revivalists as to the causes of this 'degeneration'. I know Indian hockey degenerated post Astro turf. But what has caused the degeneration in other spheres? Some introspection on the part of both the old and the young is needed perhaps, instead of the bashing.
But we should take this revivalism with a pinch of salt, to put it mildly. Ranade's words should be paid heed to by the revivalist-"...What shall we revive?...The men and the gods of those old days ate and drank forbidden things to excess in a way no revivalist will now venture to recommend. Shall we revive the twelve forms of sons, or eight forms of marriages, which include capture and recognised mixed and illegitimate intercourse? Shall we revive the Niyoga system of procreating sons on our brother's wives when widowed? Shall we revive the old liberties taken by the rishis and by the wives of the rishis with the marital tie? Shall we revive the hecatombs of animals sacrificed from year's end to year's end and in which human beings were not spared as propitiatory offerings..."(Indian Social reform, cited from The Past and Prejudice by Romila Thapar)