Well obviously they happened. What sort of fairy-tale world were you living in? And you still have to address the whole point that this is nothing new, that every generation complains about the one that follows it.
One example of how things have got better, markedly, is car safety. The statistics of injuries are somewhat vague, so we will ignore them, but 2012 saw both the lowest number of fatalities since records began, but also comes at the time when car ownership is very, very high. Very few people, or at least households, have no cars, and many have two or more.
On the other hand, virtually no-one drove in the 30s and 40s, and even at last as the 1960s when the first motorways were built car ownership and car use was hardly that high. And yet the number of fatalities was between 4 and 5 times higher than in 2012. Of course, the rate of miles driven/ fatalities is even more significantly greater in days gone by than it is today.
This is a concrete example of something that has improved over time, and we should be grateful for that. The reasons for the change are many and complex (improved design and safety features, more awareness etc.), but the change certainly can't be denied. I do wonder how much attention was given to the 9,000+ road deaths in 1941, or the nearly 8,000 in 1966.
Every time you post about strikes, or violent behaviour, and in your last post, you keep implying that this is somehow new. It is certainly not new. As I've suggested before, statistics do show that the violent crime rate has risen since the 1940s, but is on a decline currently. So, also like I said before, the picture is mixed. Life expectancy is rising, general health is better this days, and so on. Those are hardly negligible changes.
I found this 1999 paper containing a whole bunch of general trends. Overall the picture is mixed, but on such matters as health and education in particular, we are very much better off than ever before.
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/rp99/rp99-111.pdf