Here's my simple overview from history and memory...

Those born in the late 40s through the 50s and grew up in the 60s were either the love children, freedom, down with the establishment, super liberal, socialist, live in the woods and off the land, pro aboriginals, haters of posessions type... or they were strong supporters of the US who were ready to go to Vietnam and who became disillusioned with what it all turned out to be. Of course there were the in-betweens who just watched it all happen.
Then came the 70s where Americans started becoming lazy through new wealth and divided by extremes in politics as well as an emerging knowledge of the world with its fears and smashed expectations.
Then came the 80s where they found the power of greed and the hypnotic effect of ignorance. At which point they became gullible to the rising wealthy as well as the religion of prosperity. The powerful preyed on greed and religion played on the guilt of a free and loose past.
The 90s were a consolidation of the previous decades and the culmination of libertarian conservative patience and accumulated power that began in the 40s and 50s.
The new Millennium? Well here we are. You can make your own observation and conclusions about what the boomers were and why we are where we are.