re: Elvis could talk like an adult and didn't sing about pimping out his hos.
Yes. A popular culture that glorifies stupidity while despising intelligence and effort will produce a stupid, ineffective society with a dismal future..
But it isn't just the US.
I recently read a book by a Brit called Theodore Dalrymple ("Life at the Bottom"). Dalrymple is a clinical psychiatrist who treats failed suicides and his ‘war stories’ from the slums of Britain made very sad listening. One of his major points was the abysmal lack of education, and the total lack of interest his patients express about helping themselves get out of their mess. It is always someone else's fault and someone else's responsibility to fix the situation. A lot of his patients had no idea who Hitler was. Apathy rule s OK.