University and college students used to have one standard deviation higher intelligence compared to the general population. With credential creep, this has disappeared. College students are average. There's no reason to believe the same thing hasn't affected PhD students. In other words, the quality is just not there (on average). There are also much better career tracks for the best minds in 2024 compared to 1924 (startups, biotech, etc.) which exacerbates this.
Yes, if you educate the majority of the population, these more educated people will all be average. Credential creep has nothing to do with it, this is simple arithmetics.
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