Is it really expectations rising, or reality falling? I think it's a combination. I know my expectations used to be sky high, and yea my younger years were optimistic. But reality still hit like a ton of bricks.
When I was in my late teens, I was relatively certain I'd be retired as a dot-com multi-millionaire in 10 years or so. Throughout my 20s, I thought, well all I need to do is work my ass off in a tech company and, even if I'm not retiring early, at least I'll be rocking an upper class lifestyle with a few vacation homes! Then, I reached 30 and thought, jeez, I hope my standard of living at least ends up a little better than my parents' one day. Now that I'm closing in on 40, I'm wondering if I'll even be able to afford to raise a kid let alone have anything left to retire with.