The Rise of Illiteracy.

At one time, in Europe, high languages and especially Latin and perhaps Greek, were regarded as the languages of the church, but also the languages of the aristocrats and nobility.  Low languages, especially German and its derivatives were regarded as the vulgar languages of the masses (at the time in the wake of the decline of the Roman empire, Germans were seen as barbarian hordes who had raided Rome in the past).  Until the Reformation, Latin was considered the language of the church and the Bible was written in language by monks who slaved over its formulations.  These monks were an elite caste as well devoted entirely to knowledge while the German hordes were seen as barbaric.  Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press which was used by Lutherans to spread the Luther Bible, written in the vulgar language of German.  This was the first attempt to steal power from the elite caste of priests and give to the masses.  In later history, languages such as high Spanish and French (derived from Latinate origins) were seen as those of Spanish and French aristocrats as opposed to vulgar German and English.  In modern times, all these distinct languages have been replaced by English which has become the universal language since the advent of the British empire.

In modern America, English has long remained the universal language.  However, at one time, the upper class WASPs in America spoke an entirely different (and distinctly North Eastern) version of English from the rest of America.  This language spoken by the WASPs was elitist and closer to the language spoken by the British elite who were also trained in Latin and Greek.  The rest of the United States spoke another version of English and constituted a farming class.  However, for the last half century, this language has declined to be replaced by ever further forms of vulgarity.  Perhaps you doubt this, but individuals from another era would be horrified by even the highest forms of expression expressed today by our elite.  On the other hand, slang and speaking English have taken over for the masses, with much emphasis on pop culture.  This was the state of the world until about 20 years ago.  Then with the advent of the internet and a crude mass media,  even this form of speaking English was replaced by a grosser form of English often including much slang and vulgarity even of the crudest form. You can see this especially on the internet in which the original form of hackerspeak which often required some cleverness of expression has been replaced by vulgar, crude, and cutesy forms of expression including especially crude and vulgar talk and cursing which has even appeared on mainstream television.  This is added to the rise of pornography that encapsulates a large sector of the internet, whereas in the past this never would even have been allowed on television.  You can see the effects of this process when even theoretical physicists at Caltech, Kip Thorne and James Preskell are discussing popular culture.  Further, scientists once an elite caste in early America have become populist and taken to the masses, with individuals more often than not reading their popular books than understanding their actual papers.

In America, illiteracy has taken over with perhaps 23% of the population being illiterate.  As people spend more and more time on the inernet reading mere snippets of information often written by anyone in crude an vulgar form, they become further illiterate.  The old elite of ancient times was replaced by a new  American elite.  The American elite of old WASPs who were ultra-conservative was replaced by a liberal elite who entered the elite university system.  Today these elite liberals are being replaced by a crude form of culture (though their own form of culture was indeed crude).  Scientists who have been replacing the traditional priestly elite for centuries are now appealing to mass culture and few people understand true science, let alone the traditions of the priestly elite which are now all but forgotten.