This is one thing I have noticed, men in my parents's generation in their 50s were much stronger than my peers (and me). And I have been noticing I am a bit stronger than men in there 20s (on average). Of course I tossed out people who work out.
I have been seeing articles like this for a while, I personally believe this has to do with the environment and how the food we eat is grown.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/soil-depletion-an...
I'm called upon to unscrew the difficult lids off jars, but other than that I expect I am underutilizing my muscles.
I wouldn't be so quick to do this either. Many gym goers focus on targeted muscle hypotrophy over strength training. The two aren't entirely decoupled (building muscle mass will increase your overall strength potential regardless of goals), but you can certainly look very strong (bulky and defined muscle mass) and not have much actual strength, especially for those who do few compound exercises.
I recently helped move a couch with a friend meeting your your prototypical "meat head" standards and they were struggling to lift their side and frequently resting. They squat and bench almost twice what I can, arms and back are notably larger, heck I wish I looked that muscular but alas, all I can do is easily move couches.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/06/13/4815909...