I remember people thinking that they are progressive because of what year it was, like we were living in the future so things should automatically be different. For example, "Come on, it's 2014 for crying out loud (or FFS for you trendy folks). We should already be xyz." The present never seems to be good enough for what we hoped it to be in the past.
I don't really remember being told to expect the future to be a certain way. I grew up thinking that I had better figure out how life works if I want to make it, and that's not because my parents told me to think that way. I say your life is what you make it to be, so I expected to get from the future what I put into the present. The past is only used to prevent repeating mistakes, though I hated history classes.
Though I didn't expect the future to be grand, I am a but disappointed with how some things are going in society, but I'm also impressed at other things.
All in all, learn from the past, make goals for the future, live in the present, and most importantly, take time to enjoy the little things in life.