An interesting thread. A relative of the Mrs Drivr with a lengthy and fairly distinguished career behind him in the media made similiar observations to Zeebee and Lodown as regarding the levels of intellectual competence he'd seen come into his industry over twenty odd years.
His overall conclusion (I must admit to it being a VERY long conversation fuelled by a mass consumption of various reds, white etc and therefore my recollections are somewhat fuzzy!) was that due to changes in the 70s in the education system, mediocre performance was rewarded and indeed encouraged amongst that generation. It would interesting to see as to whether someone with far better Googling skills than me could come up with info confirming that view.
