I think progress, at slow-mo pace of living through it, always feels slow and stagnant. We like to put placemarkers on "progress" - Columbus lands in America, Constantinople falls, etc. but in reality these are just the big event of a very slow transition. When you read about history of science, chains of developments are usually separated by decades, and only seem like a tight chain because (a) they are long time ago, and (b) they are conveniently filtered from the stuff that ends up being dead ends.
In reality, life expectancy rocketed over the past 60 years, especially so in poorer countries, progress in quantum mechanics, uses of space, democracy, access to education, have developed tremendously. It just feels like boring improvism, but isn't so different from the past.
A total aside, but I find it sooo funny when the author starts off with "the world is stagnating", and then swiftly moves on to "America is great again", completely ignoring the remaining 95% of the world by population.
EDIT: also meant to say, the author writes about exciting developments just around the corner. I think his list would be equally long at any time in the last 20 years. Exciting uses of internet, hydrogen, nuclear fusion of course almost there, rise of dotcoms. Above I describe what the past looks like, this is what the future looks like, always.