If you think things are bad today, you should have been around in the 1970s. Double-digit inflation, Watergate, the fall of South Vietnam, the Iran hostages, plenty of political violence, rising drug use, increased unemployment and crime–everything was far worse then than it is now.
The difference, of course, is that Reagan was an optimist, not a grim authoritarian who saw the world in zero-sum terms and wanted to wage war on half of America. There is little reason to believe that history will repeat itself on this point.