I'm not sure whether people were happier or not, perhaps some people were happier because they lived in ignorance of what was happening around them... I know for me that is probablly true. I grew up in the 70s / 80s, in my family / community bubble I was unaware of bad things. Only later through the internet and people telling their stories on the internet that I realized my experience of life being pretty good for everyone I knew was completely wrong and quite a few people were having a miserable time... but I thought they were relatively happy.