Sounds like we're on an upward trend.
It's not as bad as it sounds. What percentage of the population understood science during the Renaissance, or during the Industrial Revolution? I would imagine the numbers were alot lower than what we have now, and look at what they managed to acomplish. I do think we could do alot better than we're doing however.
It is kind of telling about our culture when people who play children's games for a living get paid millions and are worshiped as gods, while those interested in science are ridiculed and called nerds, dweebs, dorks, and an assortment of other names. We'll see who gets the last laugh when we live in a technocracy.