Dumbing down of America?

I continue to see examples of how our society is on a downhill race toward total ignorance. I am a grad student but I have seen some pretty bad examples of blatant ignorance among my clmates. One of them actually wrote higher archy instead of hierarchy. We constantly turn out work that is less than great because we don't seem to care anymore about what we turn out. If it is just good enough, it is fine with us. We don't shoot for excellence. What is the deal? I know I'll get some ignorant comments from people who can't spell but oh well. I guess people get mad when faced with the truth of their weaknesses.