You're talking about the 30s and 50s. You can't do that with the off the field stuff because there is literally no comparison. Gates wise, who knows how many would have turned up if we were playing in Northampton ... and there has been more choice in entertainment and social mobility over the last seven decades, so again comparisons are awkward. I wasn't born 70 years ago, so have no match day experience of those times. However, the last few seasons have been almost bi-polar with ups and downs, and I've personally enjoyed them more than the endless rut of trying to avoid relegation, season after season.
If you're talking on the pitch, getting relegated in 2017 was a downer yes, but it was the same year we took our biggest ever crowd to Wembly. We won a cup, not an important one perhaps, but it's the only piece of silverware my kids have seen us lift. We bounced back the following year with an entertaining but nail biting season, and another Wembly appearance.
So yeah I get currently we are in libo off the pitch with shit owners ... but team spirit and potential wise, we're proably more on the up since we "got off the treadmill".