Sounds like people are struggling to me. If the accident ratio was as high as you suggest - where does the fault lie? Is it the unsuitability of the aircraft for the task, the ability of instructors and examiners to monitor and correct student errors, or a combination of both? Either way the teaching and standards are being diluted.
There's certainly nothing wrong with the 22, but I have noticed a "dumbing down" of the emergency procedures in the POH in these past handful of years. I'm guessing that perhaps our insistence in having fresh off the assembly line pilots make all our new pilots is catching up to us?