Are chess players getting better, given the same rating? Chess ratings are a relative thing at a particular time, just like boxing. It is not absolute, compared to weightlifting for example, in which the records keep getting broken. How would say a 1700 rated player of say 50 years ago who is no longer around go against a 1700 player of today? Does this mean that chess ratings over time have grade deflation?
How would say a 1700 rated player of say 50 years ago who is no longer .around go against a 1700 player of today?

Speaking as a player who was around 50 years ago and was rated the equivalent of 1800 in 1973 (my BCF grading was 150 with a generally accepted conversion formula of ELO = BCF x 8 + 600) and is rated 1718 today I'm pretty sure I would beat my 17 year old self.
OK, the me of 2021 is probably not very objective but I am sure that if I managed to reach an even endgame against my 17 year old self I would be a very strong favourite. The reason being that in 1973 almost all the chess I played was at a time control of either 30 moves in 75 minutes or 36 in 90 with adjudication after 3 hours play. The 17 year old me hardly ever played an endgame and so wasn't that good at endgames.
That kind of time control was the norm in England 50 years ago and probably in much of the non-Soviet world. Weekend tournaments where large numbers of people played 3 full games a day with a time control of all the moves in 1 hour didn't come in until the mid to late 70's.

Does this mean that chess ratings over time have grade deflation?

From my personal view absolutely, yes. However my single example of personal experience is highly subjective and one case is meaningless.
To get a more objective view of whether there has been rating inflation or deflation I think we have to look at historic data. There is FIDE rating data available going back to 2001 on the download page of the FIDE rating website and back to 1971 (unofficial data back to 1967) on the Olimpbase site. These data can be downloaded and analyzed to get more meaningful evidence.
Comparing today with 1971 is problematic because in 1971 there was a rating floor of 2200 (nobody under 2200 was listed) so there were only 547 players and obviously nobody with a FIDE rating of 1700. However we can try and maybe also, more meaningfully compare today with 10 years ago.
The January 1971 list is here on Olimpbase. There we can see that the highest rated player, Bobby Fischer, is at 2740, more than 100 points lower than today's number 1, Magnus Carlsen on 2847. There are 16 players at or above 2600, 82 at or above 2500 out of 547 at or above 2200.
The comparative figures for March 2021 are 264 above 2600, 946 above 2500, 3111 above 2400 and 17334 above 2200.
January 1971
Players above 2600 = 16 (2.9% of over 2200s)
Players above 2500 = 82 (15% of over 2200s)
Players above 2400 = 278 (50.8% of over 2200s)
March 2021
Players above 2600 = 264 (1.5% of over 2200s)
Players above 2500 = 946 (5.5% of over 2200s)
Players above 2400 = 3111 (17.9% of over 2200s)
To me that looks like it is comparatively much harder today to get to GM / elite level than it was 50 years ago but the difference in sample sizes detracts somewhat from the percentages. And, of course, it doesn't say much about what is happening at the 1700 level.
If we go back 10 years and compare numbers and percentages (using total rated players) at 1700, 2150 and 2600 we get:
March 2021
Total rated players = 363590
Players rated above 2600 = 264 (0.07%)
Players rated above 2150 = 29392 (8.1%)
Players rated above 1700 = 169425 (46.6%)
March 2011
Total rated players = 126693
Players rated above 2600 = 223 (0.18%)
Players rated above 2150 = 29575 (23.3%)
Players rated above 1700 = 111529 (88%)
Again it looks like it is relatively harder today to get to a higher rating than it was 10 years ago but that might just be a reflection of the expansion in the number of FIDE rated tournaments for lower level players. But, yes, it does look a bit like rating deflation to me.