A lot of the problem is due to general cultural issues but a lot of it is due to our education system itself.
Obama pretty much destroyed our educational system at the K-12 system and the politically correct, identity politics DEI movement has really destroyed our university system.
I can't overstate that enough.
At most all of our “Elite” universities that jumped on the abolish standardized testing DEI admit policies the level of quality of students dropped off so dramatically that the Profs in all of the serious classes and even some in the DEI identity politics study areas were appalled at the number of low functioning yet stunningly entitled morons who were in their classes They are moving swiftly to reinstate hard quantitative test results as part of the admit process but it's going to take a while to clear out the dead wood.
Bush II started that educate-to-failure trend, I think because his was an ill-ed (er, elementary school teacher, and wanted (er, demanded ) a touchy, feely, fruity-tooty school program. For everybody.