I decided to link to this article, because this seems to be all about what Less Wrong is about: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/10/better-time. Out of interest, does anyone know of a good resource for learning more about the training techniques used in elite athletics?
This really depends on what metrics you are using. For example, life-expectancy has been consistently increasing throughout the world. to the point where many developing nations have life-expectancy matching the US in the 1950s. Meanwhile, in the US, the life expectancy of homeless people now is currently the same as life expectancy for what the general population was in the mid 1960s. (Compare here and here).
I agree that in the specific issue of education in some Eastern European countries there's been a slide back, but that's a relatively short-term trend. So part of the issue here may be how long-term the trends one wants to look at.
I think you forgot the rest of this sentence. From the context, I would expect that you were going to say that it's going down, but that's not clear from the linked articles.