No advance in Technology

[The Lady of Ithilien]

Perhaps a more basic distinction is between the organic and the mechanical, rather than simple technological "progress" or not...?

Yes, that sounds like it. "Organic" would include the hobbits (not necessarily their farming methods, as we might today interpret the word, but the hobbits themselves), who were more interested in "growing food and eating it," as well as the Elves who seem indeed to have been trying to hold onto and perfect the past.

As for "mechanical," well, Buster Keaton once labeled the 20th Century "The Age of Speed, Need and Greed": it seems to have rolled over the hobbits, who were merely "generous and not greedy, but contented and moderate." It was no match: there are few of them left now, Tolkien reported, and their number likely has declined even further since then. But things change. The residents of Bree kept on through several ages of the world; perhaps the hobbits among us will do so, too, as the age of technology passes in its turn. After all,

The old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.