OK, so I prepared this little diagram to illustrate my point of view(and maybe 'facilitate discussion', as they say in the corporate world )
At any given time, whether today or 100 years ago, there is a whole range of people from the extremely unmotivated to the extremely motivated. So these all fit under the proverbial 'bell curve'. I don't think you can argue that they are all the same 'these days' or were all the same way back in the 'good ole days'. You could argue that people today are less motivated, that someone considered a bit of a slacker in 1960, say, would be considered quite normal today. But I don't think you could argue that the curve for 1960 doesn't overlap at all with the one for 2016!! e.g. a slacker back then would be considered a keener these days.
................or, to put it in a nutshell: "Don't paint them all with the same brush, as I said in my post several pages back!