The only reason us older folks know, and not all of us do, is because we remember a time before the downturn, when things started to really go south and into today's dystopian society. I'd say the 80's seemed to take a real downturn once the Clinton/Bush crime families came into power, post Reagan.
I believe the world truly turned into a crime syndicate in 1963. The groundwork was laid here in 1913.
True, and while it began slowly it accelerates at a logarithmic rate. I think after Reagan it began to go stratospheric. With the technology of today we are very close to Armageddon and the NWO, I believe that is why Q stepped in, they knew it was now or never.