Were things better in the 50s

Depends entirely on where you live in the world.
For most Westerners, the 1950's were a post-war boomtime.
Work was easy to get; you could usually stay in the same workplace or career until retirement.
On two average salaries, a couple could rent and still save enough for a downpayment on a mortgage, and then be able to pay the mortgage and interest rates.
Credit cards didn't exist and personal loans were hard to get, so fewer people risked living beyond their means.
Yep, it was a relatively affluent time, which is why baby boomers grew up to become who we are - which includes hippies, the "new age" and a whole lot of other trends that later got absorbed into the mainstream.
I'd say most people trusted the media and democratic processes back then - perhaps naïvely - but also I suspect it was probably easier to get caught doing the wrong thing.
Vaccines, medicines and surgery began improving and every decade lengthened longevity - but only for the affluent.

But there were plenty of negatives as well.
Racism, sexism, agism, able-ism and snobbery ruled - and it's not at all certain we've achieved much improvement. At most, I'd say there's more awareness of the now - but actually getting rid of prejudice and systemic injustices still seems a long way off.
The atom bomb ushered in the Cold War. Most people grew up fearing the bomb and most countries distrusted any other country that made them.
Though scientists already knew about it, most people had no idea about greenhouse gases or that humanity was 100% responsible for the excess.

Today,
"Intelligent" Technology has created far more opportunities for hiding corrupt and criminal activities.
It encourages social mirror effects, feedback loops and cancel-culture, so that fewer people are willing to listen to and discuss differences.
Texting and Twitter seem to have reduced people's attention span. The average person now finds it hard to listen to someone else for more than 45 seconds (according to psychologists) before their mind wanders. (Back in the '50s, the average undivided attention span was 3 minutes.) So people are becoming even less skilled in communication and social intelligence. That's dangerous - it can only lead to greater suffering.

But there are also countless good things about today - new ideas, new science, new cultural trends, and some social and environmental movements that offer whispers of hope.
I'm happy being alive now. But then, I choose to nurture happiness.
I think whatever time and place one is born into always has both advantages and disadvantages.

Some are obviously far more unlucky.
For instance, I'd hate to have been born in Tibet, Yemen, Bangladesh or Samoa. I'd hate to have been born during the Black Death in Europe. And so on.
But as far as this privileged Western world goes, I think the difference between being born in the 1950's - or anytime since - doesn't really matter that much.

It will all change soon enough.
This year the global temperature seems to be showing 2ºC above pre-industrial levels. The rise since 1.5ºC warming has been so fast that I think it shows we've past the tipping point. From here on the rise will be hyperbolic.
Those who are alive now are very likely to witness catastrophic global extinctions.
And those of us who lived through the 50s are a big part of what has contributed to the causes.