We live in a world of plenty.
No matter how much or little we've all spent I think the general rule is that we (western world) are spending more and more on "fun" - non-essential items. This surely would be leading to an increase in the size of the astronomy market nationally and internationally to some extent.
Also, the simple comparison of how many people buy telescopes vs build them from scraps, now vs 50 years ago, makes it plain to see how much extra money people have now, and how much extra demand there would be now for components.
I haven't had too much to spend on gear recently myself
but it goes up and down like that. Even then though, I'm more time poor than money poor - finding the time to use the equipment is hard.
My 2c worth.