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Whether there is "universal progess" in described sense depends on which start and end points do we choose. If take say from Middle Ages to today, then there is. If from Paleolithic to the height of Roman Empire, then trends would be exactly opposite, a march from freedom to slavery. So growth of per capita wealth can coexist with different directions of moral change.
Not to espouse moral directionality, but from the Paleolithic to the height of the Roman Empire, we didn't go from freedom to slavery, we went from informal to formal modes of dominance. Informal modes of dominance -look- more like freedom than formal modes of dominance, because there are more rules on the slave - but there are more rules on the master, as well, which is, in the end, what that thing we call freedom is.