Sorry, I should have clarified - On the one hand, we have an unprecedented level of maturity and quality in the materials of instruction available to be curated

Sorry, I should have clarified - On the one hand, we have an unprecedented level of maturity and quality in the materials of instruction available to be curated. This is what I meant by saying that a motivated learner combined with a good curator/teacher has greater opportunities than ever. However, the standards of testing, the methods of evaluation, and the requirements of learning for a given grade level have all been slowly backsliding for nearly a century on average. So while we have some of the best access to materials ever, we have lower expectations of what their abilities should be, and cruder methods of evaluating them being applied more broadly (algorithmic essay grading, anyone?). Or perhaps I'm seeing this wrong, and comparing high standards of education for a different era and cohort group against a much broader cohort group that, if I were comparing them against an earlier era, are in fact much better off than they used to be?