A Utopian Society?

I'm currently reading a book by C. Gregg Singer entitled 'A Theological Interpretation of American History'. I highly recommend it, though it is very challenging, especially if you're like myself and have a very limited understanding of our nation's history.  

In this work are traced the various ideologies (e.g. puritanism, deism, transcendentalism, social darwinism) which have arisen from colonial times to the present, and have helped shape our society to what it is today.  Yet as I'm reading it one thought keeps coming to mind.  I'm having a tremendous problem trying to reconcile today's radicals/liberals with those from centuries past.  Singer presents the latter as honestly thinking that a golden age of mankind can be achieved in this life via secularism, and that every humanistic ideology which has arisen since our country's inception was working towards this end. Yet when I consider their supposed descendants today, it's hard for me to envision them as similarly well-intentioned.  They do not want a utopian society, but simply want money, power, and control.  Am I wrong, or are today's globalists, the left, etc. really trying to usher in their own version of a golden age?  Or could it be that this is in fact the desired end, and the destruction of our country is simply the means towards that end?

I really would appreciate any thoughts on this matter.