No, that movie is about a subset of society that always existed in different forms, even in the 50's. I don't think it was showing the first shoots of degradation.
[I'm guessing unlikely, due to the censorship? Yes, Белое солнце пустыни (1970) actually has a villain and even an on-screen shootout, but the underlying vibes are still a far cry from Брат (1997)]
FWIW, Lavrov still seems to wax poetic from time to time (although I haven't read anything of his since «Нет, ничто в этом мире не ново...»).
Shnur obviously has something to say (although in the last few years* he seems to be saying it less clearly and more cryptically), but he's not any more the man in the street than Lavrov.
Also, I'm not sure (a) how serious you were about this thesis, nor (b) if the degradation to which you allude significantly overlaps with what I might assume to have been degradation...
* which produced their own emigration wave? looking at israel these days I wonder if much of that has become "out of the fire, into the frying pan"?
