If you were alive in the 90s and noughties and in work, especially if you owned a house, I reckon you had it pretty good. There was a decent amount of work, after the horrors of the 80s, housing was affordable, at least to about 2000, everyone could afford heating and petrol, inflation and interest rates were low and salaries reasonable. Healthcare received considerable investment post 1997 and doctors and dentists' surgeries worked. there were a few cockups (9/11, Iraq war, financial crisis) but on the whole it was better than what we'd seen before (Winter of Discontent, strikes, collapse of industry) and what we have now (Winter of food and heating crises, strikes, corruption at the highest level of UK government, war in Europe, etc)
Sometime towards the end of this comparatively decent period, people decided that they didn't want to pay for any of these services, because, well, dunno about you Jack but I don't much like paying tax, and I haven't been to hospital or need benefits, so why should I have to pay for it when I can use that money to buy a bigger house? The rest you know.
So no rose tinted specs there, but yes, this is a come down. It's not hit the bottom yet, so brace yourself. I hope you have plenty of money, you'll be needing it.