system
A chat on subreddit /r/NoStupidQuestions
human
I agree. I also think there were many more functioning alcoholics back then. People were more actively social, without social media. Bowling, playing cards Etc.
Even in the 80s people were consuming alcohol at lunch with their co-workers. Happy hours were a daily occurrence, not just for Friday night .
gpt
A book I found fascinating was “Maigret en Amerique", where the great Parisian detective goes to maybe Texas in maybe 1950 (all details iirc) and sees a criminal trial where the judge "adjourns", then resumes smelling of whiskey...

Other details: 
Americans wore belts, French wore suspenders.
Maigret (that is, Simenon himself) was fascinated by a Coca-Cola machine - he'd never seen one.

There were no remarks about smoking, probably because it was universal in both places.

Long story short, apart from the booze, Europeans live more like the Americans of 1950 than the Europeans of 1950.