There have been quite a few improvements since 1968, and quite a few declines.
What really stands out to me is the comparison of what’s in the White House:
In 1968, we elected Richard Nixon, who turned out to have bugged the DNC at the Watergate hotel, the corruption around which got him to resign his office and made him notorious as a terribly corrupt president, but he was an intelligent president, and he actually cared about the good of the nation, and founded the Environmental Protection Agency despite the environment not being a major political issue at the time. He also cared about health insurance reform for working-class people, children and the poor, supported HMOs and Medicare. He was interested and competent in world peace and non-cowboy diplomatic negotiations. People cared about the corruption scandal, and he left office rather than face the judgement of Congress.
In 2020, we’ve had four years with a corrupt idiot as president who doesn’t seem to actually care about much of anything except himself and siphoning as much wealth and power as possible to the ultra-rich. He’s been trying to undermine and abolish as many environmental protection policies as possible. He’s been trying to help Republicans erode or eradicate the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Social Security, the United States Postal Service, etc etc etc. He’s an international laughing stock and horrifies our allies with his incompetent, ignorant and blustery loose-cannon international relations. When impeached by the House, as with the Muller investigation and the emoluments violations and the insane nepotism towards Kutchner and his daughter not to mention his own profiteering, he tried to make out that he was a victim of conspiracies. And the news media and far too much of the public largely don’t seem to think any of the endless list of misbehavior or idiocy warrants throwing him out of office.