Everyone is tripping 'the now' is the best time...
Overcrowding, urban sprawl, lost etiquette, drops ins, blow ins, online surf reports, facebook surf reports, Instagram surf reports, Snapchat reports...grommets that rip small waves and charge big ones, sharks eating everyone in the water, state of the art wetsuits/boards/leggies/wax, freeways to most waves, 24h servos, $5 coffees & $10 sandwiches..
This is living
On a serious note though I cannot claim to know anything other than the mid 90's to now but each era seems to have had its hey day, 10 years is a long time in Oz history. Seems like for every 2 x advancements or improvements there is a backwards step somewhere.