It seems each decade has a romanticized view and the realistic view. Cinema, pop music and television seem to propagate the romanticized version. Realistically people tend to be in better spirits when the economy is in better shape. The post-recession 80s had a boom with peak real estate prices in roughly '88 as I recall. 

Sadly drug abuse (cocaine mostly) exploded as an epidemic of unprecedented magnitude, somewhat documented by the movies Scarface, Good Fellas and others.