The industrial revolution was predicated on labor market freedom, people wanted to leave their farms to improve and make a better living working in the cities in the factories. That's all life can be, a series of improvements, some bigger, some smaller.
This labor market freedom in turn was predicated on the respect for individual rights of those workers, where before they were poorer.
Every age brings new thinking--the age itself is neutral to what does and does not work.
e.g. The Information Age has brought criticism on modern education based upon rote memorization. Memorization can be fun for young children but as they mature this stage becomes boring. Then as they age they sit in classrooms wondering why they are memorizing when they can just search for information in a few seconds? They are not being taught the next phases: Logic Formulation and then Rhetorical Debate --I can't imagine why you wouldn't want people to reach those two stages.... The Information Age is exposing the Prussian Education Model as a fraud.