I think it's more the inevitable outcome when students and teachers are forced through endless cycles of tests, evaluations and metrics - from primary school on

I think it's more the inevitable outcome when students and teachers are forced through endless cycles of tests, evaluations and metrics - from primary school onwards. A well-written paper on this, which I think has been discussed on HN before: http://www.systema-journal.org/article/view/314 http://www.systema-journal.org/article/view/314 (you can get the general idea by skipping the technical parts in Section 3). If this theory is correct, then it has less to do with the supposed weaknesses of today's students or a deliberate political agenda to keep them from growing up - instead it's an unintended consequence of the idea that everything must be subjected to constant "scientific" numerical evaluation.