Although I don't disagree that there is a "dumbing down" process going on, I don't think it's recent, and I don't think it can be stopped or even slowed down. As communication technology reaches further and becomes faster, a lowest-common-denominator culture must arise, and this probably started with the printing press.

The problem now is that innovations arrive daily, and the cultural ramifications arrive the followiing day, so we see the changes happening right before our eyes. Each incident is nothing, but together it's a tsunami of idiocy. What can you do? Stand on the shore and tell it to go back.