I'm inclined to chip in a point out how conservatives shy away from questions of "why", such as why Marx's industrial communism proved so popular during the industrial revolution, and Mao's agrarian communism was so attractive in the post-colonial world. There was a social socket keyed to communism, just like a protein receptor; a situation so bad that communism appeared to be the consensus answer.

And yes, the epicenters where those philosophies (variants) were implemented were devastated, but the milder temblors farther away shook things up just enough to produce the beneficial changes you describe. There'd have been no "European-style neoliberal socialism" without the much harsher communist experiments. People tried a spectrum of social experiments in the 20th century, and not surprisingly, the middle path proved best.

But back to causality: By shying away from questions of "why", conservatives create for themselves a demon-haunted world.

But I also perceive a blind spot over here on what I'd loosely call "our side". Why do conservatives want to "stop that progress and roll it back"? Are their thoughts and actions wholly random and spontaneous, occuring in a vacuum? What's their causal mainspring?

Given that the traditional plaint of the right is, in one form or another, "I want my America back!", what's back there that they find so attractive? You describe that world, accurately, in a very unappetizing way, yet they prefer it nonetheless; wtf?