On technological progression, we are living in a time of unusually fast development, by historical standards. Its possible that the galaxy went through periods of technological advancement and decline.

A period of technological decline was barely possible in a single continent on earth when the best storage method available was paper. The idea of a galaxy-wide decline that somehow left people on both sides recognizing the same government and same order of religious monks in a galaxy with far better means of storing information just doesn't make sense. Knowledge is only able to be lost if the means of storing it are perishable and not spread out.