Interesting, but remember that the only 'change/progress' that has happened since Sauron's fall is that of Men -- Men have progressed, and we have ourselves changed the earth.
At any rate, the Rings were nothing more than an amplification of the power that the Eldar already had in Middle-Earth. The 'block' is still Elvish. Up until the forging of the Rings, through the First and largely Second Ages, Men were less restrained than they were in the Third Age; this was clearly due to the restraining effect of the presence of the Elves themselves. In the First Age, of course, the supreme mastery of the Earth was theirs over Men. Numenor in the Second Age seems to have been affected and influenced by the Elvish psyci, whish is why it didn't become as much of a typical human realm as we might have expected it to be. (Except after the coming of the Shadow, which is an example of Man's ability to be corrupted and is not to do with the Elves.
In the Third Age, Men were actually restrained by the Elves in rather a looser way. The Elves were still there in some numbers, though, and the principal kingdom of Gondor had a strong Numenorean heritage -- the Three Rings could have been a component of the 'Elvishness' that lingered about Middle-Earth, although this was chiefly for the Elves themselves I think you'll find; it was the tendency and need of the Elves to look behind or to the present that forced them to leave (in the face of Men, who look forward), and this backward-looking feature seems to have been contained solely within the Elven kingdoms (Lothlorien's borders, I believe, are most probably where Galadriel's influence over time ended). I believe that in the Third Age, however, the real 'block' was nothing more than the legacy of the Eldar in the minds of Men.
By no means was the 'Elven block' what hindered Men from technological advance, as the Easterlings and the Haradrim were clearly at if anything a lower level of advancement than the Gondorians. Men had, at this stage, I think simply a long way to go in terms of time. It is in the North-West of Middle-Earth (that the Eldar and Edain, the noble races, ruled over) that fairness was maintained, and this is the true 'Elven block'.
The block to the kind of advancement that we have now. The Elves left because we were beginning to spread, beginning to wake up to our full potential to dominate. I am not of the opinion that it was the prescence of the Elves, and all things Elven (perhaps inc. the Rings), in Middle-Earth that perhaps stood as somewhat of a barrier to us. This barrier was in the psychi of Men, Men with an Elvish or Edainish past, and by this a certain Eldarin component of the Western kingdoms (excluding Dunland, obviously) of Men was retained.
Slowly developing out of these roots, or developing a new Mannish identity (still with an Elvish base, but one that would inevitably wear off over time), Men overcame the block. The Elves by the beginning of the Fourth Age had very little to do with the affairs of Men, instead looking inward, to the past and the West that is Uttermost; no new influence on their part was forthcoming, although by this stage the independance of Man had formed and further influence could not have been.
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