If over the course of 100 years, nothing more newsworthy has prevailed to get people’s attention, that the doom and gloom of a century ago is the same as it is today, it’s saying something about the world in general that we haven’t changed. Should we have changed in 100 years? I’d like to think so, but as I get older I know that’s a pretty optimistic view of things.
That author’s paragraph out of context could mean a lot of different things which we can leave up to each viewer to decide.