An official survey measuring trends among Americans every year since 1972, shows a long term gradual decrease in this since the latter 1980s. Gradual decrease in what? Happiness. (That’s according to the General Social Survey, part of NORC based at the University of Chicago. For almost 50 years, the GSS has provided politicians, policymakers, and scholars with a clear and unbiased perspective on what Americans think and feel about such issues as national spending priorities, crime and punishment, intergroup relations, and confidence in institutions.)