Its a little more complicated than the common internet arguments make it out to be. For one libertarians and the like love parroting the thing about the economic collapse, and western lefties love parroting the retort that it was the liberalization that messed things up, where truth is that there were very deep issues in the system, that liberalization only exasperated and turned into a disaster. So when a lot of people say that things were better before the 90s, they are absolutely correct. But they also do not mean that things were good, or that things weren't headed for an economic crisis anyway (which arguably would have been much milder had the privatization and embrace of capitalism happened). Furthermore, a lot of the "it was better back then" sentiment is also fueled by social conservatism, because a part of the "it was better" includes that there were no gays, no political correctness, women knew their place and you could be freely racist. You have the boomer chuds, who want the return to the Soviet system, because it means not having pussy western values, and basically being fascist with a red coat on, and you have the younger chuds, who are opposed to the Soviet system, cause they want some bullshit libertarian fascism they think is good. I know these people. I grew up with them and was surrounded by them.