My undergraduate college has stopped offering degrees in Mathematics, Psychology, Theater, and Philosophy because there were too few students taking these major subjects to continue the departments. For instance, there was ONE math degree in five years. Nor is it required to take classes in logic or to pass a competency test in a language other than English, as was once the case. ("But how," I asked my old prof, "do the computer science majors test their programs if they don't know logic?" "I asked that, too," he replied.)

It seems as if no one wants to think or to do academic work anymore. The high schools, in many cases, ill prepare their graduates for college. Parents don't support their kids by requiring decent grades OR decent schools; instead they blame everyone save themselves and their children. And when their kids fail in college, because for all the problems there are still SOME standards, the parent sue the college (I've seen it, and I can tell some stories you won't believe).

I once had a job application from a high-school-age male who spelled his first name three different ways on the application. I didn't hire him.

It's not the authority. But standards seem to have fallen.