That's a fascinating question. I just can't wrap my head around the early 2000s as a time of Excellence. I think of it as a time of impending collapse. You have 9/11, the start of decades long horrific Wars, growing Mass government surveillance and authoritarianism, extreme political fracturing, ramping up to a massive financial disaster, and so much more. Now that's true of every time every time has massive flaws and Horrors in them, but that's one I just can't really wrap my head around thinking anything else of.

Are... are there people who think of that time as a cultural peak?

If that's the bar, then yeah, we've had at least one since then and are due for another soon.

What I gather from this thread is that people probably like the decade the best that they grew up in 🙃

Up until 9/11, for North America, maybe. After the collapse of the Soviet Union things felt pretty good. In my social circle there was a lot of optimism.

But we were on a neoliberal tear. A lot of the benefits we were enjoying (of globalization) are the cause of the spasm of conservatism we're seeing today.

I think it depends on what people consider a peak. By 2000, the education system was already in trouble and wages had stagnated for 20 years. Glass/Steagall had been repealed, and GW was in power.

I think it came in the 80's, personally.

Most people’s opinions here seem to be oriented around their youth. When we are just old enough to engage with the world in small and controllable ways, but still too young to really grasp the worst parts or feel partly responsible for them, it’s easy to feel optimistic about the world and our place in it. That optimism is what we look back on and long for because, as we age further, we gradually realize how misguided that optimism really is.

everyone's going to have a different answer for this but I believe we were at our best in the 90s in America

Respectfully, I think both the question and the premise are quite meaningless.

The world is a terrible place.

The world is the best place it's ever been.

The world could be much better.

Reference

The 2000s!?!? The attitude era of this planet? Fuck no!

The 80s had the best music, the best fashion, the best TV, the most memorable movies, and awesome gadgets.

We'll never have the 80s again!

I don't think we have peaked. We have had progress and regress in various areas at various times that has either kept us level or on a slight climb.

Extremely relevant:
Bo Burnham - 1985

how long or short is this “lifetime” of which you speak? the 90’s is peak, you whipper-snapper.

I don't. The 80s were.

No

Robot UBI will be awesome. The price floor of automated AI slop will make everything better because worse will not exist.

No. We might have the cultural equivalent of an “Indian summer”, where things briefly seem to get better, but overall, humanity is on the downswing. We’re ruining our environment and draining our resources. Not enough people in power are motivated to fix things, or at least keep them from getting worse. Most popular culture will be an increasingly frantic and transparent effort to ignore the collapse of human civilization.

Not for humanity. I think AI will develop more sophisticated culture and become the major driver of progress at some point in the future.