I promised I'd be back, and back I am.
The way you describe the current situation happens to really resonate with me. What happens to not resonate with me, though, is the pessimism I perceive from you. I'd be totally in to say that the current system is one that inherits misery as you describe it. And I'd also say we are currently in a worsening trend. But I think this trend can some day be reversed. Not within the same system. Not with the same people. No slow reverse, but a radical reverse.
I'll keep up with reading your interesting thoughts. There's surely much for me to learn from them!