Here in UK at least the 'golden years' for me were from first flying in the late '70s up until probably about the turn of the century. It was just so much more free and lacking over-legislation back then.
The many, many increases in bureaucratic ruling and security and elfin safety and increase in reliance on the radio (some of today's GA pilots think the radio a primary flight control) and concentration on GA as a training ground for commercial rather than a fun thing to do in its own right has been death by a thousand cuts.
Also everyone has a video camera in their pocket now (on their phone), so those beat-up fun flights and impromptu fly-bys at a strip have a good chance these days of featuring on YouTube with the inevitable consequences.
It's quite simply not the fun it once was. And I suspect that it was even more fun prior to my 'golden years'.