There are a number options to increase the speed of gameplay. They've been around since the first SOSE, but in the Diplomacy expansion the top speed setting was increased (which will be included in Rebellion).
Specific options are: Income Rate, Build Speed, Ship Movement Speed, Research Speed, Culture Speed, and Victory Speed. It makes a pretty big difference, but don't expect it to turn into an action game 
*also, you can use the speed control buttons in the bottom center of the UI to increase game time further (up to 8x) if you in a period of resource gathering, etc.
