You could equally argue we are on an upward spiral if you look at the big picture though.
People by and large are more equal, healthcare is better, poverty no longer leads to early death necessarily, the standard of living has improved drastically for the poor over the last 100 years, there is more religious and racial tolerance... the list goes on...
Whatever society is going, I disagree with both statements since neither seems to have any evidence, they're simply opinions the originators seem to want to be true.