I am not sure if It is Time for Truth meant his words literally.
Perhaps he meant that in the past, certain behaviors and relationships that we would now consider abusive were considered normal and so people were happy. To give an example, an authoritarian husband who orders everyone around, with a wife who fulfills every whim of his without ever being able to consider her own needs- today this would not be considered healthy, but was probably common 2-3 generations ago when gender roles and behaviors were very different. And as long as the husband was frum, and provided for his family, the wife was “happy”.