I love the new stuff!
But my personal favorite era of Marvel is the 60's.
Lee...Kirby...Ditko= Marvel's Holy Trinity.
I can't stand alot of dialog from that far back.
Can't really comment on which era was "better" considering I was born in the late 80s.
For me the real changes didn't start to be significant until sometime in the 80's. Before that it all has much the same atmosphere although there were changes over the years. The real changes at Marvel seemed to begin with the introduction of the second X-Men team.