Think of how much the concept of space travel captivated America for decades. It was one of the main frontiers of television, inspired numerous songs, and created generational defining media.
When America went for GDP and convenience over awe inspiring goals we lost the luster that inspired millions. The same way we look at historical buildings over brutalism and modern shit shows. Innovation died because of capitalism gone rogue min maxing fiat currency over actually building anything.
I never tied it to decline of media, but I can't argue. Even if you flip it around to other old media that isn't sci-fi at all, like westerns, they still were typically very aspirational just set in a different time period.
I've been complaining for ten years how we totally quit trying to do anything cool. We don't try to do the impossible anymore, unless you count impossible as mutilating a man to make it into a woman. Things like computers have become sterilized espionage for the masses. Even AI isn't exactly revolutionary as much as we've just managed to stack enough hardware computation to make it possible. It was always possible since the world of programmable computing existed, just the resources weren't there. I saw this video recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUE3FSIk46g This guy is an old OS dev who worked for Microsoft in the 90s, and it's about running AI algorithms on ancient hardware.
I'm not sure about music though. I put that on decline of IQ, or perceived decline of IQ as I'm not well versed on whether the IQ has declined a lot.