Modern crisis?.. or New wave?

Are we in a time of crisis? What does it look like to be on the edge of historical transition, and how can we turn crisis into transformation?

I just finished a discussion on radio 4 about the crises of our time... There are many of course, from the political disaffection that has touched many, to the doom-mongering, fear-farming tenor of recent politics, to the difficulty that bright new ideas have in rising to the top and building enough long-term support to grow. Welfare, local identities and global citizenship, ethical empathy, spiritual inspiration, and the sense that human creative thinking itself may be outdated... all of these need new bright sparks to provide new solutions.

It leads me to wonder what era in history we most resemble, and how we can recapture the creative spirit of classical period of the Upanishads, Socrates and the Buddha, or the philosophically luminous 'dark ages' of Gaudapada, Augustine, Bhartrhari, or the medieval, renaissance, or romantic eras for that matter. What are the conditions that cultivate a leap forward at the deepest levels of thought?