In earlier shows, there was a tendency to show civilian UFP computers using graphics styles of older Starfleet equipment (the TUC-era displays on the Maquis ships, or the TOS screens on the Amagosa Observatory). That was probably more to suggest they were old ships and stations than to suggest a trickle-down effect with Starfleet's cutting-edge gizmos eventually becoming widespread in the general society, but it fits.
Which was pretty cool. We're left wondering how exactly S31 was ahead of the game. If they merely had better engineers, why would their 23rd century work so exactly match eventual 24th century technology even down to aesthetics? (Say, if putative Mad Nazi Scientists knew how to build a Moon rocket, and did, it would not follow that the Apollo program would ride on a rocket looking exactly like that, because it wasn't actually built by Mad Na... Uhh, you get my gist anyway.) OTOH, if both S31 tech and 24th century civilian tech is the result of work built on stuff gleaned from Alien Source X, and S31 just had access to that a bit earlier, then the similarities are a natural result. Of course S31 might have gotten its tech iteratively, too, going to the 24th century in a time machine to see what it should look like. And that in turn could work iteratively as well, the time machine being the result of the work conducted on the time machine - so that Phase 4 was completed thanks to detailed reports from Phase 7. Timo Saloniemi
I think S31 is ahead of the tech curve, look at how S31 was able to get in and out of Bashir's quarters without being detected. They are definitely WAY ahead of the tech curve.
S31 might be like Men In Black and release some of their technology / patents over time to fund their secret activities.