Someone posted this funny Sizzler commercial from the 90s on facebook:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3YGtQ40Qvs

While it is comically over the top, it struck me that a couple decades ago, it was possible to make such a commercial in earnest. Now people are more cynical. My Mom and I were talking about this, and I thought about how the airline experience had gone from being pampered and luxurious, to being herded like cattle. So I told her I thought perhaps the idealism that existed in the 80s and 90s (when I was growing up), ended with 9/11. She thought it was partly that, but more so the economic recession of 2007. What do you think? Was that idealism I grew up in an illusion based on fleeting economic prosperity

... as evidenced by the harsh reaction a recent ad campaign by another restaurant chain received.  I think it's more difficult to make such an ad in earnest now because most people will see it as a corporation tugging at our hearts to sell their products and services to us... which in my more cynical world view of 2015, I think is the case.

Regarding big food corporation being heartless and manipulative, I agree it is probably the case. Perhaps it was always so, but what saddens me is the change in the audience. It seems itʻs no longer possible to even appeal to a belief in wholesomeness or goodness. Some argue that those things are just a fantasy, and I struggle not to side with them, because the ideals instilled in me in my youth seem not to have any real substance.

that it is just accepted as the way the world works.

To be idealistic is to be labeled nuts, sad to say.

And I DON'T mean Hillary.

In my experience, the "idealism" you describe is a distinctly American affliction. The world was just as crazy, unmoored and dangerous then, as it seems today (actually, U.S. crime rates are at an all-time low!). People just have a tendency to look back and think, "hey, I felt safe and loved during my childhood, so the whole world must have been safer and full of love back then." It's nostalgia.

The objective difference between then and now is the explosion in niche media which feeds our fears and worst impulses. So, in that way you could say that we live in a more cynical age. There are plenty of people who would enjoy that Sizzler commercial today, it's just that now there are more platforms for ridiculing the naivety of it.  

As to your other suppositions, the awful airline experience of today can be traced to the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 (look it up if you want to know more). Yes, there was a short golden age of (relative) world peace in the late 90s. 9/11 was a wake up call only in the sense that such a horrible event that Americans never paid much attention to when it happened "over there" finally happened in the U.S. And while the market crash of 2008 and subsequent recession has been the worst since the Great Depression, we've had some serious, earth-shaking recessions in between, it's just that people tend to have short memories when the economy picks back up.  

Also regarding idealism, let's just say that I live in an university environment, and there is no shortage of idealism as far as I can see. Idealism tends to be a product of youth, which life can beat out of you.

Yes , sad, indeed!!

END OF MESSAGE

When I think of how things have been during my life, the "Good Old Days" weren't all that good. Being born during the Great Depression, my parent's main worry was if I was getting enough food. When I was in the 3rd grade the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the US joined the allies for WWII. That war ended after we bombed Japan with a couple of A-bombs. After graduation from high school the Korean War ("Police Action") I spent 4 years in the Navy. then during the rest of my adult life, we have had more wars Vietnam, Iraq, 9/11. Justin Bieber and other obnoxious happenings. Today, I have a television that has an off button and a cell phone with which I can contact some accommodating women who will bring me as many happy endings as I can stand.
Maybe these are my Good Old Days. 8o)

True, but LOTS of the airline service problem is that people say they want one thing, but when it comes time to buy, the only thing they really want is cheap.  

You can still get a great seat, lots of snacks, and great service for probably what that used to cost.  The only difference is that now you can also buy a spot in a sardine can and then complain about it.  (How old am I? Sardine can? Lol.)