Steven Pinker definitely has gotten less spicy and less impressive over the years:
"the best explanation for the good old days is a bad memory. When we take an objective look at how the country is doing and which way it has been going, we see that American life is not a hellscape of carnage and decline. What stands out is a resilient democracy that tends to recover from setbacks and make halting progress."
"When things do go right, it usually means either that nothing happens (a country remains at peace, for example) or that improvements creep up a few percentage points every year and compound over time, transforming the world by stealth."
And with an obligatory NYT ending (that unfortunately doesn't say what most of his audience thinks it says):
"We should choose [leaders] who assess the nation’s problems realistically, distinguishing genuine afflictions from anecdotes and rumors and who vow to learn from its successes and not repeat its mistakes"