It's more like we - current day civilization - are far behind our human potential for several reasons. Operating on corrupted money being one symptom of it. 

The root causes lay in a complete misunderstanding of spirituality and
that our actions are almost entirely based on the materialistic workings of the mind.

Alhough Greek thinkers championed the use of the mind in sciences and in the understanding of the material world around us, their lives were embedded in a deep understanding of mythology and ancient wisdom (e.g. Pythagoras, Plato).