> What precisely caused the observed reversal of the long-term trend around 1980 remains perhaps even more difficult to pinpoint.

Alan Bloom knew[1].

Paraphrasing Churchill, "If you're going through a Dark Age, floor it."

One hopes that the passing of the current crop of U.S. "leadership" supports actual reform.

Tech understands the need to decentralize; politics rather more resembles a singularity, and we only seem to grasp the danger in the party we abhor.

May we pass through this dip swiftly.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Closing-American-Mind-Education-Impov...