Yes, classic films were better -- but I don't think filmmaking was markably better in the past (with the possible exception of the years transitioning into talkies).
Here's the reason old films seem better: Terrible films fade away. No one ever watches them again. They don't get re-run on TCM or AMC, art-house theaters don't carry them, and they don't get put on DVD. They turn into footnotes.
Classic movies are confined to the best of old movies, and so by definition are going to seem better than the current crop of movies. We've already culled out the real dogs.
Let's take, for example, "The Maltese Falcon" -- a better film than the combined quality of any TWO films I've seen released in the last year. That classic film, however, was the third film version of the story. Why have you never heard of the previous two? Because they weren't very good, and have faded into deserved obscurity.
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