Our economy basically rolled back 8 years of fudged numbers based on bogus, non-existent growth. We're really stagnating rather than anything else. Not great, but it's not exactly time to find a good cave and wear our best barrels. And outside of the slowly eeking economies of China, India, and maybe some of Brazil (forget Russia) right now, stagnation isn't looking so bad by comparison.
Civil liberties ebb and flow. The equilibrium will shift for a while under Obama until the next terror attacks get people to reintroduce McCarthyism again. But overall, this is nothing like life under the House Un-American Activities Committee of the 1950s.