I think OP was talking in the past tense because they were referring to the rapid decolonization in the 50s. It must have felt similar to some Europeans at the time.
Individuals certainly profited by it, but Macmillan's post-Suez 'Audit of Empire' showed that the UK as a whole did not - not really a huge surprise, given that Adam Smith had argued that the financial benefits were illusory over 180 years earlier.