I doubt if there is ever much difference in levels of happiness between different epochs. Some situations definitely do cause intense stress and trauma en mass; wars, natural disasters, persecution, injustice, poverty and ill-health. But such sufferings have occurred all over the world in every human culture.
A modicum of wealth can make people happier in the sense of being able to meet their needs and help others. But too much wealth can create many kinds of suffering when someone thinks they have the right to fulfilment of any and every whim irrespective of its effects on others or the environment.
Happiness is the signal that at that moment all our needs are fully met. At the most basic level, there will always be fluctuations of various kinds of needs, discomforts, pains and stresses. This can be influenced by our emotional state, what we believe, and how we interpret what we perceive. The greatest degree of happiness possible is achieved when we eliminate unrealistic and destructive habit patterns of the mind, learn how to accept what we cannot change, when it is possible and necessary to create change, and how to tell the difference.
I think people are not more or less happy in this decade, then they were in the past. With social media, people have a platform to whine a lot more about their small grievances in life... so it seems like everyone is miserable these days. Mostly they are just seeking out attention... I never do that though. Did I ever mention I've never owned a pony??? FAAAK MY LIFE :(((
It certainly seems like people are less happy these days. And there may be some truth to that. More people means more stresses and problems, and consequently more malaise and melancholy.
That depends on how long ago you mean by the past. Many folks born, say, during and prior to the 1930s may have been happier at one time or another, but now most of them are dead, so it stands to reason that people today are happier than those older folks merely by virtue of being alive.
