they were prolific (and their misses fell out of favor), scientifically literate (the foundation sciences have not progressed much since the 60s, biology/genetics being the major exception) and based their stories on old myths and legends (a standard trope in fiction), which allowed a type of reflective writing on the human condition with forward prediction power. many were also tied into anti-soviet/anti-american spy networks and traveled frequently working as information gatherers and agents for their respective governments.
sumna technologiae (stanislaw lem) is a good primer for people working in AI today, as lem attempts to understand cybernetics through the golden age lens. arkady and strugatsky's hard to be a god is about the problems of trying to order society and artificially advance it.
the soviet skepticism towards scientific/technological utopias comes through much stronger, given those authors lived through a failed one. the movement continued into the real sciences, fomenko's new chronology being the gold standard of what happens when you erode faith in your society, truth and the stability of reality. the western system is going through a similar social collapse the soviet one went through, reading the soviet literature of the time will help you understand the coming future of the english speaking peoples, no death or violence, just a disoriented sadness, a type of alien haze which clouds your senses and has you slowly floating down into cold darkness.