[Mr. Blonde]

Wonder if the growing access to college and j-schools played a part. As those who spent time at college instead of working their way up the foodchain at a paper began to assume editorial control it could work to explain it. But as you said that still leaves a lot of factors that are hard to quantify.

[LS]

That's some of it. Some of the veteran reporters I interviewed noted a growing problem of just ignoring reporting standards---dual/multiple sourcing, no unattributed sources ("on background," "a White House spokesman").

One also identified the rise of the unions in journalism as an important part.