seven, eight, nine...then seven, eight, ten

I'll respond to that. I don't know that I would use the term dumbing down. It seems like it is more of a complacency. Children these days aren't taught respect because people tell them that they are smart and capable and don't need to listen to their elders. They therefore never learn the value of what has come before them. 

I have experienced this first hand. I have watched a group of capable, intelligent people completely ruin something that was working just fine before they got there. Nothing changed about the setting and the group other than the people making it up. And yet, when it came time to be in charge these people spent more time blaming each other than trying to deal with the problems before them and fix things.

So I don't know what to call it but there is a self-destruction going on within society. Hopefully I'll be back to respond to this again later.