Something happened in the 1950s - 1960s economically. [1] It is really as remarkable in its own right, as the industrial revolution had been. The rate of economic growth, slow but steady since the industrial revolution, started to accelerate.

It's impossible to really quantify this kind of thing, probably. And the causes were numerous (it's also an era of relative peace, for example). Still. I've always suspected much, maybe most of it, is due to to a mix of telecommunications, computer automation, and computer-based knowledge-amplification.

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/exports/GDP-per-capita-in...