I will speak to this issue from the perspective of what happens in colleges. Most students come to college with absolutely NO interest in learning or thinking.
Don't look in awe!
The students want to get a degree to get them a job that pays them $50,000 a year so they can buy things and have fun.

They have no respect for education and no respect for the professors trying to teach them something. They don't come to class, they text message and eat throughout class, they talk through class, they don't purchase the textbooks, etc, etc, etc. And this is happening EVERYWHERE.

We have put so few requirements and standards that students want to do nothing but the minimum. "Just get me out of here"
Some classes give credit and grades for EFFORT, not for QUALITY.

This EFFORT issue comes from earlier learning situations and is a ridiculous concept. I don't get a paycheck for my EFFORT of getting out of bed and getting to work. I get a paychek for doing my work with high quality.

I have had students yell at me, threaten me, etc over grades, but yet they do not come to class or do the work. They want a grade for any thing they define as effort. They want a grade because they have paid to come to college. I have had parents of these students call me to try and "make deals." (WHAT THE HECK IS THIS TEACHING THEIR KIDS?)

I believe wholeheartedly in helping students succeed, but I question what we are teaching them in the US school system. Because when they get to college, it seems that all they have learned is how to perform at the bare minimum, be abusive and disrepectful, and manipulate their fellow classmates and facutly. It is a true shame.

Many faculty today would rather focus on research or clinical work than deal with students....This is sad.
So the best faculty are leaving the students to be taught be foreign teaching assistants or low-level instructors.

Dumbing down in the american college system is here.. Until something gets done to put value and standards on education in high schools, college will suffer as well.

I see it everyday.