Is our generation useless?

I can remember as a kid reading about great British heroes - Nelson, Wellington, Shackleton, Churchill, etc. etc. I don't see much heroism around now. In fact, I don't even see much competence. The generation I've grown up with produced Blair, Cameron, Osbourne and a heap of greedy and useless bankers. Is the current crop of Brits utterly useless or am I being pessimistic?