Were our parents sour after the Depression and WWII?

"As Mr. Obama leaves office, the national mood is more sour than at anytime since the 1960s. The polls say some two-thirds of the voters think the country is on the “wrong track,” and a majority say they expect their children to do less well financially than they did. This reflects the historically slow economic recovery and incomes that have only recently begun to return to where they were when the recession ended."  Wall Street Journal

This quote from today's paper gave me pause.  I thought about my parents and their generation.  I wouldn't say they were happy go lucky, but they weren't sour on their future or their children's.  President Roosevelt had extended the Great Depression probably 5 years more than necessary than if he'd just settled in and done nothing.  The war was devastating with my father, his brothers, and cousins all serving and my mother's brother being killed in China. But of all the emotions that come to mind, "sour" isn't one of them. Obama's personal numbers still seem high, but everything he's pushed on us from Obamacare to ISIS to bathrooms has left people more dispirited and distrustful of government.

War memorial in Forreston, IL, pointing to Dad's name, 2007.