Modern views on Ancient Philosophy

I have run out of spaces on my fingers to count the number of speculative conjectures that litter the intellectual ground in the world today... Let's just begin with the most often parroted narrative of modern intellectuals which narrates the thought process of Ancient Philosophers and thinkers, which goes something like; "... In the old days before history was recorded, people, who were like unintelligent cavemen, saw the thunderbolt flashing in the sky. And they thought... How wonderful and awesome! It must be a God, let us worship it..." I cannot recall how many times I have heard the very same story, including from some very intelligent and educated people. 

The more that I meet the people who narrate such histories, and consequently the more I learn about religion, I feel that their thought is not only uninformed, but also unfortunate, and disparaging of the glorious and learned philosophers of the past age. However, even so, it is not worth one's time to delve to deeply into this dialectical process of dialogue amongst two sides which are diverging and converging at the same time... It is more worth one's time to arrive at the flash point directly! It just appears as this much to me at this time: Has philosophy progressed over time or has it degraded?. 

I think, one of the philosophers of the modern age who has managed to hold my attention and even impress me more than once F. Nietzsche has already spoken something along these lines, and recognised that decadence is the order and norm of culture over time (at least in this age). May I have the liberty of extending this idea even to philosophy? And not just Western philosophy, I think the idea of the dissipation of knowledge (in a society) over time has been written about by many, many people and is easily observable in the different schools and traditions of philosophy and mysticism in the world. 

In such a case, without a credible reply to this timeless observation (about the degradation of knowledge in society over time... ) I don't see how it can be anything but an act of supreme and perhaps even evil arrogance to say something like, "we know now more than we have ever known before." In fact, the opposite must most certainly be the case! There is no possibility of hiding the fact that humans in the present time live in great unhappiness, disease, and distress; and it doesn't matter that we may have electronic gadgets and cellphones and flying cars. Does it? In such a situation of  global disgrace and indignity, why would anyone make a statement that disaparages any time that existed before... I don't understand... We know of times (even in recorded history) where people walked with their heads raised to the sky when even the Gods lived amongst human beings and everyone was prosperous...