It's also laziness. Taking all the hard parts out of any field (including science) is "liberating" but honesty has departed and the field is irreparably cheapened. This is only possible through a deep conviction that there is no truth: nihilism, not advocacy. And yes, it's been going on for a very long time.
I'm reminded of the scene with the newspaperman in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, where he drunkenly boasts of the press writing the "truth" as it sees fit. This problem is like a deep infection, causing a host of other problems that we are now experiencing.