All of us can remember years gone by, and can see for ourselves whether we think the UK is in better or worse shape now. We also need to remember that the UK could well have made equal or better progress had we not joined the EU. But the main thing to consider is the long-term future. Once we leave the EU, with British inventiveness, entrepeneurial spirit and hard work, our country will be what we make it. This to me is far more valuable than submitting to a false sense of security in a political bloc with its own unreformable agenda.
Leaving the EU isn't "isolating" ourselves. It's escaping from a bloc that isn't doing well. We can still do business with people in EU countries and they with us, and we'll finally be free to form our own trade deals with countries around the world. We joined the single market decades ago, but now find ourselves in a political union which isn't necessary for trade, and is heading for a superstate.
I think there are numerous politicians who could navigate our post-Brexit arrangements successfully, but the media has given far too much airtime to figures such as Farage who aren't exactly near the centre of the political spectrum. Some programme makers might consider this makes "better TV" but it means the moderate majority are far less represented than they should be.
Some of the remain side claim it could take 10 years for the UK to leave the EU. If that's true then there would be at least two general elections during that time. Sooner or later, probably sooner, the Tories will be out. If we remain and the EU goes in a direction we don't like, there's far less we can do about it, so we're better off leaving and getting back into the driving seat in the UK.