That's just the personal term I use to describe it, but I'd say it's a mix of lack of life experience, lack of expectations from the school, personal attitudes, lack of seriousness, lecture-hall style teaching and too many students, and low standards.
Examples:
- vandalizing all signs with the letter 't' around the school because the school has a reputation for "stealing a giant T" from a building, but all the students are too busy with career stuff to do anything like that
- saying "I want a job that pays me the most money"
- walking out in the middle of class after an attendance quiz
- administrative staff sending out emails with numerous typos
- lack of serious thought into important topics
I think American college students tend to be less mature than European ones due to being stuck in a suburb for 18 years as well.
Overall, I see a conversion towards mcdonalds-style university management happening world-wide. More or less what you explain, also based mostly on PR.
