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I think this is misleading. The number care about is more like "life expectancy conditioned on being a healthy adult", which I don't think was changing much back then, nor has changed much recently. But probably is still going up a little if you control for demographics, which, in my limited understanding, have been changing in the West to mask (small) improvements in longevity.
I don't know exactly what you mean by "healthy young adult" (healthy young adults by definition die rarely), but life expectancy at every age has increased since 1900:
https://ourworldindata.org/its-not-just-about-child-mortality-life-expectancy-improved-at-all-ages
Life expectancy at 20 years old in 1900 was just under 65 and is now over 80.
Whoops, thanks for correcting me and for providing a link.
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This is not accurate. In the year 1900, mortality was much higher than today at every age range. Healthy adults were constantly being felled in the prime of life by bacterial infections or infectious diseases.
But yes, there was no true escape velocity then or now. The gains were all in helping people realize their potential, but the potential itself remains fixed.
Oh, I stand corrected.
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