At the time, they were right; it was as good as society had ever been.

I think they were much like us in many ways. They probably imagined that things could get better (even if they didn't imagine electricity or computers).

> At the time, they were right; it was as good as society had ever been.

Debatable. Proponents of "original affluent society" argue that agricultural civilization was a major step back in terms of quality of life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_affluent_society