Right before the Wesleyan revival in England, for instance, things were pretty bad -- arguably as bad as they are now. Similarly, right before the 2nd Great Awakening in the US, things were pretty bad too.
"Because many evangelicals tend to see our world as a sinking ship they might conclude that we need not waste time with high culture. But as C.S. Lewis noted, "if you attempted to suspend your whole intellectual and aesthetic activity, you would only succeed in substituting a worse cultural life for a better...if you don't read good books you will read bad ones"."
Perhaps God is telling me the same thing.