Humans have always been as intelligent as they are today, but knowledge grows over the generations. Every generation is less ignorant than the last. The Egyptians were a vastly successful people who changed the world for all of us... but they were babies playing with Legos compared to today's engineers.

You think the person whoever designed the Pyramids of Giza would have any idea where to start building the Burj Khalifa or to get a Saturn 5 to the Moon without a couple of thousand generations of discovery inbetween?

Sorry, I know it's not romantic. The truth isn't often romantic.