Spy uncovered by people in 50s, maybe (3,1)

'people in 50s maybe' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't judge whether this works.

'spy uncovered by' is the wordplay.
'spy' becomes 'agent' (secret agent).
'uncovered' means to look at the middle letters.
'by' becomes 'x' (2 by 4 is 2 x 4).
The middle of 'agent' is 'gen'.
'gen'+'x'='GEN X'

Can you help me to learn more?