You make an excellent point. That iron men/wooden ships thing has been around forever and everyone knows that modern folks are panty waists compared to the real tough guys of long ago.

But how many were doing 5.15a routes or El Cap in less than a day? or running sub 4 minute miles? pushing long passages underground? etc. etc. Not many are accomplishing those feats even now, but we are cherry picking outstanding examples from the past and comparing to perceived norms of the present. I think when you compare norm to norm, or exceptional to exceptional, we do OK right now.