Is Progress Necessary in Current Times?

Have you ever noticed that after every decade or change of the status quo we develop a tendency to look back on the the past with distaste? We find ourselves constantly making the current political state, philosophies, and level of intellectual genius superior to those before it. I have to ask though: Who are we to judge if the state of the nation, or of the world even, has progressed to a point where the past is now only applicable to the past? I strongly believe that along the way, we as a human race have made a fatal mistake. In Brave New World Mustapha Mond states that "There was a choice between World Control and destruction. Between stability and... (p. 48)," referencing that there was a critical decision that would either lead to the continuation of life or the absolute end of all of humanity. This seems absolutely absurd in text, but it is a habit that we tend to do in reality, not only in novels. For example, as I took AP World History last year, I found that we look at the Romans and other such successful empires of the past and we say that they were "destined to fail" or that "progress was inevitable." I came to the conclusion, however, that I believe that this progress we are determined to keep on pursuing will only eventually destroy us. Not as moral beings, not as religious beings, but as physical human beings, as creatures that will no longer roam this Earth. Did the Romans really need progress? Because as I studied, they were very contempt in the life they were living. I think, then, that somewhere along the way of the time span of human cultural and technological advancement that we became obsessed with the great chase of progress, not for political reasons as in Brave New World, but as a selfish marker so we may feel superior to a time before ours. What do you think? Is progress now necessary for the community and politics, or have we passed this point and have made it purely for selfish pleasure?