How could you know if you don't play...you'd be surprised how the average level progressed lately! In any case the only way to know would be to make them duel with the current top sticks 
You're not asking about the average skill level, you're asking about people who fly so well that they earn your respect. At that level, I strongly doubt that the best pilots from a number of years ago would play worse than the best pilots today unless there have been major changes to the flight model. Angles are angles, energy is energy, and ACM are ACM - these fundamentals don't change. If anything, I saw NathBDP do things years ago in a 190 that I still haven't seen replicated in any films from the last six or seven years.
Now, factor in the severe rust factor for those older pilots, and clearly the current players have a competitive edge. But we're not factoring rust into the equation I assume?
For me, I had a lot of respect for pilots who gave it their best and were willing to mix it up. Skill wasn't really that big of deal to me, particularly when I was running the BKs and looking for potential recruits. People who earned my respect showed that they didn't take the game too seriously. They demonstrated this by flying with reckless abandon against improbable odds, and they did this with good, playful attitudes. Guys like Morpheus, Stang, Furball, Slapshot, Hub, Superdud, Guppy, etc. really exemplified that philosophy to me.
