High taxes, two recessions, small houses, the shift from tight-nit neighborhoods to atomized suburban ones (thats for the Catholic SoCons out there), "consensus" politics between the "modern Republicans" and the liberal Democrats. Don't get me started on those GD awful school films about hygiene that they were STILL showing on Lawn Guyland into the 80s.
Much of what we think of as "the 60s" had its roots in the 50s. Rock and Roll, the sexual revolution (see Kinsey and Hefner), alternative cultures (see the beatniks), folk music (much bigger in 1959 than it was in 1969), among other things.
From my perspective, the 1950s were the germination of the cultural revolution, the 1960s were its springtime, and the 1970s were when it reached full bloom and became mainstream (witness high divorce rates, pot in every high school, swing clubs, disco, etc.).
And the bad things about the ‘50s really were just a continuation of the bad things about the ‘30s.