I'm not sure about far, far worse in our lifetimes; it depends on where you put Carter. I'd say this is almost as bad as it has gotten since WWII.
Here's where I say the Carter years were "far" worse:
--Much higher inflation
--Unemployment on par with current levels
--Iran hostage crisis
--Windfall profits tax and subsequent gas lines/rationing
--Giveaway of Panama Canal
--Olympic boycott of 1980
Now, I will say that the spending and taxation we currently face is in fact MUCH worse than 1979--but BOTH parties are to blame for that one. Government spending is at the highest-ever percentage when compared to GDP. I will agree that there are no "moderate" Democrats that seem to be left in the House and Senate compared to the guys like Sam Nunn, Scoop Jackson, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan. But the voters are to blame for that one because they fail to notice the ever-leftward shift of the Democrat party, instead mindlessly pulling the "D" lever, thinking that the Democrats are still the party of FDR and JFK, and not of avowed socialists like the Progressive Caucus.