I disagree about the clothing. I started wearing the advanced alpine mountaineering clothing in the 1980's -- polypropylene base layers, the polyethylene fleece from Malden Mills, the nylon and polyester shells with Gore-tex vapor-permeable membranes, Spandex polyether-polyurea fabrics, 2 and 4-way stretch Schoeller soft-shells, the wicking "micro-fiber" polyesters, and siliconized nylon. While some of this stuff was invented earlier in the 20th century, it was the 1980's when this stuff really hit the outdoor clothing market.

There is none of it, and nothing invented since that I wouldn't trade for age-old natural materials like wool, canvas and down, especially for hunting where some bulk in the "luggage" is tolerable. There may be a few narrow applications where the advanced materials are a real benefit like ultralight trekking or bicycle touring, but for almost every other outdoor activity, what this stuff has done is allowed outdoor clothing makers to source highly consistent synthetic materials, produce garments with low-cost offshore labor, and sell them at massive margins through niche marketing to rich US markets for leisure and recreation.

I will remark that since the 80's there has been a distinct shift from low-cost (birch) and middle-priced (low-grade walnut) hardwood stocks to synthetic polymer stocks being standard on rifles and shotguns. There are also a lot of laminated (plywood) options that were not popular in the 80's. Back then, plastic and plywood would have been regarded as cheap and crappy. Today, people prefer them because they're stable and can easily be made to stay accurate. I think people came to realize that pursuing that goal with solid wood was a proposition that could double the cost of the rifle for most rifles under $1000 and people buying in that price range are not willing to pay that.