I'm inclined to believe that the dumbing-down of Americans is intentional.  Contrary to belief "ignorance is not bliss". Jefferson makes the point when he says:  "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Sadly, I'm seeing more and more Americans who know less and less about politics. And care even less about what they do know.

Maybe Plato was on to something.

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.  Abraham Lincoln