Declinism

Declinism is the belief or perception that a society, institution or field is in a state of decline, often paired with a tendency to view the past in an idealized or overly favorable light compared with the present. The pattern has been observed across historical periods and cultures, with commentators in many eras describing their own time as one of moral, cultural or civic decline relative to an earlier golden age, and researchers have linked it to the combined influence of rosy retrospection about the past and negativity bias in how current events are perceived and reported. Declinist views are discussed alongside survey findings that individuals commonly rate conditions in their own immediate community more favorably than they rate the same conditions nationally, a pattern taken as evidence that broad declinist perceptions may reflect biased perception rather than a straightforward read of actual trends.