Yes, I am saying that, primarily with respect to civil liberties. The 1970s represented a high water mark in privacy rights and rights recognized of the accused; the latter have been whittled down to a phantom of what they once were primarily as a result of the government's so-called "drug" war against marginalized communities, and our actual level of privacy is lower than what people had in East Germany, owing to technological advancement.

Advances have been made on race and especially gender, but although that intersects in various ways with civil liberties, that's a separate axis of progress. (I would also point out that most of the gender progress occurred in a way that echoes my suggested strategy: build power external to State power, and the State acceptance or co-optation of it is a fait accompli.)