Not old enough to verify anything either, but I'm really curious about why you think this.

My impression is that the smart kids from a few blocks would go to Nasa, and those are the ones we remember. Many smart kids had no access to higher education, or were lawyers and doctors (which is absolutely fantastic).

When I recently watched For All Mankind I wasn't thinking "people did cooler shit then". I was thinking "that particular shit was really cool, overall most people then and there were worse off, including most smart people".

May be it has to do with me being spanish and our specific culture, but Im pretty sure there were plenty of geniuses doing bullshit or evil back then. Why do you think otherwise?