Why a big gap between generations of apes?

Science teaches us as mankind is developed from apes. That means mankind is the first generation ape. Why is, therefore, a big gap in the apes of today and mankind?  Recorded history can be back to 4-5 thousand years. But we have never heard of apes changed to man. Of course, anthropologists tell us that they got fossils of mankind aged for about 4-6 million years such as Lucy. That may not be a surprise but where is the continuity?

One may argue that the whites are the first generation apes while the blacks the second generation apes. But what we listen from intellectuals like Kofi Annan is that all are same generation apes and even the blacks with past glories than the whites. So, if all mankind is same generation ape, where is the continuity of generations of apes?  Is it possible that other generations of apes between the mankind and the current apes have been lost? Why so big evolutionary gap?