USA. Still kickin. 30-40 years ago actually puts us right astride the end of the Cold War. Before that we were still terrified of the world ending in nuclear fireballs or rampaging hordes of raving communists zerg rushing through the Fulda Gap, after that we fell into a period of extremely hopeful and naive feelings (the 90s) where things seemed to be going very well, that lasted about 10 years. Then the divisive 2000 election and 9/11 occured, dashing that feeling for the next few decades.

I'd put our current state on par with that state of Cold War opposition, when things were still frightening.

Prospects are about as expected. We're winning some and we're losing some. We're pinning most of our hopes on our ability to innovate at the technical level to figure out a way out of this climate mess, now, since we've run out of alternatives basically.

On the whole I am cautiously optimistic. Depends what happens to Trump, he's a powerful symbol.