Besides that this completely missed the context, that we are talking about the American mass media, and American nostalgia, I'd argue that time will have to tell on this matter. 2000-2010 started well for most of the world, but major faults were revealed in the global economic system. We may well look back on this time period much as we would with the Roaring 20's. What if most of the growth was fake? What if it really were all just financed by deficit spending on the part of the West, and that China, India and the rest of the developing world cannot uphold their current levels of infrastructure, let alone their level of prosperity?