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It wasn't always that way. I attended high school and college in the fifties and they were exactly as learning institutions should be. Some made good use of them and some didn't. For those who didn't, their lack of success wasn't due to brainwashing or discouragement by the schools.

I'm not sure when the Change occurred. Primary and secondary institutions probably declined in the wake of the dreadful busing program designed to implement integration after Brown, which lead to the bankruptcy of many public school systems. As for college, I think it has entered the point where they indiscriminately let anyone in. Colleges have ceased to be the bastions of the elite and are now for everyone. They let people in who probably have no business being there. The result--it is nothing but a 4 year vacation from reality, a period of drunken debauchery. Oh, it's fun all right, but it's a waste of time, which in life is precious. A college degree is now meaningless--virtually everyone has one, and all one has to show for it is an increased tolerance of alcohol and a massive student loan debt.

Furthermore, I am convinced that the period spent in college is designed to erode the values inculcated by one's parents. Behavior of all sort is encouraged, thus leading to the acceptance of moral relativism--the lessons of the weekend go hand in hand with the lessons in the classroom.

I have a very low opinion of the American higher education system, and what's worse--I enjoyed my time there immensely. What was it that Aldous Huxley said? We have learned to love our slavery.

I think you have it figured out quite well. IIRC, the transformation began around the middle seventies, after the law suits over the civil rights act had worked themselves out and it was finally decided that the only way to integrate was to force it by busing. As you say, down hill from there. The left had the upper hand.