In Deuteronomy, God says to the Israelites, "Behold, this day I put before you a blessing and a curse."
Every day seems to hold both, and the present moment is no exception. In the last 100 years, life expectancy has gone up all over the world. The "green revolution" in the 1970s reduced hunger and famine to historically low levels. There are fewer active armed conflicts right now than at any point in human history.
At the same time, due to electronic media, we're more acutely aware of discrepancies, those who have not received these benefits as fast as others. We're paralyzed with fear at the thought of terror attacks, although more people die every day in auto accidents. And those autos, which bring ordinary grocery stores more amazing food than the kings of the past had, they're making us and the planet unhealthy in many other ways.
All of the successes of Progress haven't made us happier. But with seven billion of us on the planet, and more to come, going back is not an option.
Every system can be balanced in two ways: increase effort, or decrease need. A car can have a bigger engine, or less resistance. You can earn more money, or spend less.
Unhappiness comes from expectation. We think that the future could be better if X happened, whether X is all the nations of the world signing climate agreements or you personally winning the lottery. In reality, lottery winners tend to end up less happy, because all actions have unintended consequences and complications you can't see until you're already there.
The balance we need is to decrease desire. I don't hope for a beautiful future to come along and save us all anymore.