In the trusted and tested Tolkien fashion, it seems the world had been better in the good old ancient time. Not only cosmos was more complete, benign and splendid, civilizations seem to be mightier, grandier, more prosperous and advanced than the any incarnation of the later ages, at least until the unfurling of the Greater Darkness. During the Second Age civilizations were on the long road of restoration for their former glory, only to be plummeted to the nadir again.
It seems the cosmos has ever been shrunk since the Godtime. The impression is at the late Golden Age the world's expansion reached its maximum, and after onset of the Storm Age, it has been gradually but inexorably diminished and lessened. The world gets smaller and smaller, shattered and broken time and time again, not only in metaphysical sense, but also in physical scope.
I wonder it is true that the cosmos has ceased to expand since the Golden Age, and afterward it only has been withered and shrivelled.