"were of a generation where we had witnessed the stifling and smug atmosphere of the postwar years,.."
I find that exceptionally patronising and quite undeserved. I was born in 1938, so lived through the war and its aftermath. Most people in the UK had experienced bombing, or had relatives who had. Even in my small Devon coastal town we were bombed often; the end house in our street was destroyed (with occupants, as I saw the following morning) and on another occasion my mother was machinegunned in the street by a passing German bomber. But these were nothing compared to the dangers and hardships of those who lived in major cities, like London, Bristol, Plymouth and Liverpool. The danger was also random - for example, the bombing of the school playground in Petworth (40+ children killed) and the Guildford-Horsham train destroyed by a Luftwaffe aircraft looking for a soft target.
In the wider world, vast numbers of those of military age had been conscripted and virtually every family lost at least one member.Many of those returning had to cope with either mental or physical problems - or both!
To turn to the post-war period, the first and over-riding reaction was that we had survived. But that wasn't all. It is often forgotten that rationing continued into the 1950s, so that housewives and catering staffs at places such as C.H., were constantly juggling with ration coupons and money to enable their families/schools to survive. (As an aside, I have to admit that food at Housie in the late 1940s and early '50s was far more varied and plentiful than at my home). Much of the housing stock had been either destroyed or seriously damaged, a situation that took years to put right.
The people struggled and in some ways sought to restore pre-war norms. But in other ways they kicked over the traces. There was a Labour government which revolutionised many aspects of life: the NHS, nationalised railways, road transport, airlines, etc. My father (a real scion of the so-called middle class) voted Labour in 1945 as he confided to me many years later!
On the international scene, the UK still had massive commitments and the government and its citizens had to disengage from India and Palestine, as well as defend some imperial territories (e.g., Malaya). The UK contributed to the UN force in Korea and played a major role in the Berlin airlift. Indeed, the international situation was so bad that National Service had to be reintroduced.
It is in the nature of life that each generation criticises its predecessors, but if my generation seemed 'stifling and smug' I can only remind you that we did have a few problems to contend with
David