Let's be honest here, the PS2 generation was awesome, and when the PS3 first launched it had the specs of high end PC's at the time.
The reason why this whole console peasant thing has sparked again is due to there fisrtly being a large gap between generations and also that the current 'next-gen' consoles run a mid range graphics card which doesn't really push the industry forward. PS3 sparked HD gaming (720p @ 30fps) and the PS4 should have sparked 4k IMO. Although a 1080p @ 60fps target is by no means bad, the fact that AAA titles run at freaking 792p @ 30fps, it's just not ground-breaking at all.
I don't think the console is ever going to catch up because I believe this will be last generation.