There are many characteristics that are typical to "richer" countries with a high quality of life, mostly in what's often classified as "the first world". People who live in such countries don't often pay attention to these characteristics because they have usually lived their entire lives with them and don't know anything else.
One of the most prominent signs of a higher quality of life at the societal level is cleanliness: Outdoor areas in general are very clean. Streets, parks, public areas, even roadsides outside cities are clean of garbage. Building facades look clean, windows are clean, insides of buildings that have public access (either public buildings or private buildings with public access) are all very clean.
This cleanliness is not just the product of the city having efficient garbage disposal services, but also the citizens themselves having a culture of cleanliness: People don't just throw garbage outside. Instead, they dispose of their garbage properly, putting them in bags, and those bags in the proper garbage bins and garbage sheds, for garbage trucks to collect. On top of this, of course, garbage management services provided by the city do regular sweeps (literally) of city streets to get rid of any garbage that may be there (because there will always be jackasses who throw their stuff there). There will also be city-paid workers picking up garbage in public parks, beaches, and so on. If you are a jackass who throws your used garbage outside, eventually someone will pick it up and dispose of it, cleaning up your mess for you.
Both public and private businesses also usually take care of cleaning up their windows and building facades, so that dust, grime, diesel fumes and pollution don't build up for too long. (Most such countries have, in fact, cleaning companies that will clean windows and facades. They do almost invisible work because almost nobody notices them existing and doing their work.)
Another clear sign of a thriving high-quality-of-life society is the number of businesses that are open in cities, especially at street level. The richer and more thriving a city is, the less empty unused spaces there will be at street level. Buildings where the bottom level is dedicated to businesses will be completely used by shops, restaurants, bars, and all kinds of services. If any business closes, it won't be long before another one takes its place.
There are many other signs of a thriving rich society, but these two are the most visible ones, and the ones that will start most visibly faltering when quality of live starts eroding in a city.
And we can see this more and more in many cities, particularly in Europe and North America: In these cities levels of cleanliness are decreasing, and businesses are closing more and more.
Garbage is not only appearing on the streets, public parks, beaches and roadsides, but it's taking longer and longer for anybody to remove it. The more the quality of life has eroded, the longer it will take for garbage to be removed. It's a very clear sign: When you see garbage becoming a more and more common sight, you know that things are turning for the worse.
As quality of life erodes more and more, eventually the garbage will never be removed and will just keep accumulating until street after street becomes so completely full of it that you can't even walk through them anymore.
And, of course, the other visible sign of an eroding society is closed storefronts and businesses. Unoccupied business space, closed doors, perhaps even "for sale" signs. The more decrepit the city is becoming, the more common of a sight. And once you start seeing boarded up storefronts, ie. they are not just empty but the windows are actually being protected by boards, you know that things are going downhill really, really fast. Not only does being boarded up signify that whoever owns the space doesn't even expect it to be rented any time soon, but it also indicates protection against broken windows, which indicates increasing crime rates.
And that's the less-obviously visible side-effect of decreasing quality of life at the societal level: Sharply raising crime rates, sharply declining safety. Broken windows, vandalized storefronts, likelihood of being harassed or even mugged when walking down the streets. Boarded-up storefronts are the most visible indication of this.
This is happening more and more in many European and North American cities. And everybody knows why it's happening, but they aren't allowed to talk about it because it's "politically incorrect". It will you who will be attacked if you talk about it.
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