societal collapse and declinism

Resources used : Book called : The collapse of complex society's by Joseph A Tainter 

https://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2015/jan/16/declinism-is-the-world-actually-getting-worse

Brief summary: The article on the guardian is focused primarily on the idea of diclinism , in the first chapter of the book by Tainter he describes societal collapse as when a society 

“displays a rapid, significant loss of an established level of social political complexity” . In the guardian article it tells us how we see the past as a more favourable time . 

What I was hoping to find out : I was hoping to see the different views on how society has developed for better or worst in recent years. I wanted to see a balanced article that considered both sides of the argument within it . I wanted to understand better whether society was actually getting worse or whether that was just a false collective opinion of society .

Brief summary of what I've learned : The whole idea of diclinism is that we are socialised to see the past as a much better time, and view our future as being doomed . I learnt from the article that 71% of people when asked said they thought the world was getting worse .From this we know that the people within our society agree with the ideas of diclinism and see no hope for our future , but the question stands of whether or not our quality of life has depreciated and in what sense . 

Reliability of source : 

The collapse of complex society's - The book was written by Tainter who is an American anthropologist and historian . He is also an Author of collapse of complex societies, this in itself means the book is quite a reliable source he isn't writing for another reason other to inform people . It's his own book , which he wouldn't want to inform people incorrectly as it may even give him a bad reputation . 

Quotes from the website : In a survey run by YouGov for the programme, 71% of respondents said they thought the world was getting worse, and only 5% said that is was getting better. But what’s the reality of the situation?' 

From this we can establish the fact the majority of society agrees with the idea of diclinism, they believe that in terms of the world it is definitely worse than it ever has been .