If it is to be believed that Brooklyn is the epicentre of all that is happening next, then we are in for a wave of noughties nostalgia. Yep the noughties – a mere 10 years ago.

A new exhibition at a pop-up museum on Atlantic Avenue is celebrating 2000s pop culture with a particular focus on the contribution of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and Mischa Barton.

The exhibition, titled Nicole Richie’s 2007 Memorial Day BBQ, looks at this period of time through the lens of Nicole Richie’s infamous party – where the leaked invite said to wear your tightest Tsubi jeans and “sluttiest tops”. The invitation also stipulated that guests should “start starving now” as no girls over 100 pounds (45kg) would be allowed in.

The exhibition also commemorates Lindsay Lohan’s home detention ankle bracelet, Naomi Campbell’s community service work, Barton’s OD and the reality show The Simple Life.

It’s not just a 00s themed museum. There’s Meet Me in the Bathroom – a seriously great oral history by music writer Lizzy Goodman that I devoured last month. It’s a world from not so long ago, steeped in the stovepipe trouser, boozy parties in Williamsburg lofts, short sharp three-minute rock songs a la the Strokes, the White Stripes, Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and the Killers, with cameos by the Vines, Jet, the Libertines and Franz Ferdinand. Ten years goes in the blink of an eye yet many of the bands are no longer with us. The White Stripes have broken up, the Vines and the Libertines have blazed out and long eulogies are being written for the Strokes, who are still together but haven’t capitalised on their early promise.

Reading Goodman’s book made me nostalgic for the summer of 2007. I was living in London and from every shop they played Rihanna and Jay Z singing Umbrella (a good change from the ubiquitous shop floor crooners, Travis). In every tabloid there was a paparazzi shot of a dishevelled Amy Winehouse (bloodied ballet slippers, collapsed beehive, Blake) and gastro pubs serving half-decent food were appearing on every corner. And if you wanted to chill at home, you’d just slip your thong off (where it sat just below your tramp stamp), change into your comfortable velour Juicy Couture tracksuit, play Norah Jones on your iPod, power up your hair straightener and log on to this new thing that everyone was talking about called Facebook.

But what else? Nights in chilling with your pals and the (pink) box set of Sex in the City. Everyone watching Sopranos and The Wire. The sudden ubiquity of online porn and the trends that followed: Brazilian waxes and sex tapes (see One Night in Paris, 2004). Bald Britney. The iPod and later the iPhone. The generation’s torch songs being the ones that featured in Grey’s Anatomy (Snow Patrol, Enrique Iglesias, Lily Allen, Gomez, The Fray). Everyone reading Jonathan Franzen.

Some things of that time have stayed with us: Ri Ri and Beyoncé are still among this decade’s biggest artists. Much of fashion too has stayed the same – particularly that Boho festival look kicked off in the noughties by Sienna Miller, Kate Moss and Alexa Chung. You’ll also still see the occasional aviator sunnies, Uggs, American Apparel deep V T-shirt, distressed denim and trucker cap. Thankfully no one wears Ed Hardy anymore.

But what were the noughties really about? Does what happen then bear much responsibility for what is happening now?

Of course. The decade that gave us September 11 and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has given way to Isis, the “alt-right” and Donald Trump. By 2016, the hope – and the moderate road – of the Obama years collapsed towards the hard right (Trump, Steve Bannon and the alt-right) and, less potently, the left (Sanders, and the rise of Antifa). In Britain, the optimism of New Labour gave way to lies on Iraq and WMDs and deep voter distrust. In Australia the election of Labor’s Kevin Rudd in 2007 after the conservative years of John Howard turned out to be a false dawn.

The time between 2007 and now has flown by in the blink of an eye. So why the nostalgia? Why the books and the museum? Why the tug – always the tug with the past – that things were better then?

Because – maybe, just before the financial crisis of 2008 hit – they were. But not for everyone. And not by much.