The Flynn Effect is about how general intelligence is generally trending upward. In the good old days, people were significantly dumber than they are now.
This holds up in all quantiles. The smartest kids today are much smarter than the smartest kids a few decades ago, and this is apparent in the difficulty level of academic competitions.
"Some research suggests that there may be an ongoing reversed Flynn effect (i.e., a decline in IQ scores) in Norway, Denmark, Australia, Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, and German-speaking countries,[4] a development which appears to have started in the 1990s.[5][6][7][8] In certain cases, this apparent reversal may be due to cultural changes which render parts of intelligence tests obsolete.[9] Meta-analyses indicate that, overall, the Flynn effect continues, either at the same rate[10] or at a slower rate in developed countries.[11][12]"
I'd contest that idea. Although they may have more knowledge or be intellectual I'd argue people two or three generations back were far more capable than our current population.
They'd be able to fix their own cars, frame their own houses,etc. Most people these days struggle to change their own oil.
These people are also unable to program a VCR. When cars were unreliable, it was beneficial to understand how they worked. When computing devices were unreliable, it was beneficial to understand how they worked. The field-specific skills are different, but the basic reasoning skills were poorer among those older generations.
This holds up in all quantiles. The smartest kids today are much smarter than the smartest kids a few decades ago, and this is apparent in the difficulty level of academic competitions.