I was a callow youth back when adult judgement was considered respectable. Those were the days when the claim that a split atom would result in free electric for everyone was gospel, pipe smoking voices would go into the conviction that doctors are more valuable than miners, that the dawn of civilization was the Neolithic and any suggestion that the Soviets were experimenting with a machine that would replace the stenographer was absurd.
In 1983 the United States Government delivered report called A Nation at Risk which warned of a 'tide of mediocrity.' It asked 'reformers' to look at ways to boost academic performance. In the next seven years it became all about the person, self esteem, and the promotion of 'short, positive statements that students and teachers repeat to build confidence, reduce negative self-talk, and create a supportive learning environment.' Then, around 2004 or there about, My Space, Facebook and the waterfall from hell started prowling around feasting on self esteem to the point were even a cat could tell lies about itself.
It wasn't the soviets who made the machine that would replace the stenographer it was the tragic monopoly of the profit motive.
