Investigations of critical physiological traits associated with the genetic progress of yield in wheat are essential to determine future crop breeding and management strategies. This study grew 32 cultivars released from 1965 to 2017 for two cropping seasons (a dry year, 2016-2017, and a humid year, 2017-2018) to examine yield potential achieved through efficiencies in canopy light interception, solar energy conversion, harvest index, and nitrogen uptake and utilization. Yield progress for wheat (25.0 ± 1.8 kg·ha-1·yr-1) resulted from increases in plant biomass, harvest index (HI), and nitrogen utilization efficiency (NUtE), regardless of whether the season was dry or humid. Modern cultivars with an erect canopy and slender flag leaves optimized light interception and could achieve higher biomass yield. The introduction of semi-dwarf genes (Rht-8) reduced plant height (0.05 yr-1) and improved HI (0.004 yr-1) and NUtE resulting from both increased pre-anthesis accumulated biomass and plant dry matter mobilization after anthesis. Greater biomass partitioning to spikes resulted in higher fruiting efficiency and grain number. Due to greater tillering capability through increased NUpE, an increase in fertile spikes and grain yield was observed. Among these newer cultivars, the genetic yield gain was slow, and yield stability was more affected by accumulative rainfall than diurnal temperature. The future challenge of wheat breeding is to maintain the genetic yield gain without increasing the reliance on chemical fertilizers under an increasingly variable climate.