Foghorn, the latter part of what you just said is exactly why I don't necessarily thing this is a bad thing. But on the other hand, lack of education brings complacency (only for the fence sitter, perhaps). To give you another example, I was recently in Paris. Every place you go to eat lunch or dinner, you get a basket of really good bread. Its just not the same in the US. Somewhere along the line, our desire and forthright demand for high quality bread has diminished. Although people are happy with it, its because precisely that people don't even know what good bread is anymore (I cite Subway as an example).
