This is only going to get worse as time goes on. And it’s not even necessary for a conspiracy to make it worse.
I read once that Socrates warned of the forgetfulness that writing causes. And it’s true. Today we have more knowledge, information, and raw data at our fingertips than at any point in the history of the world, and yet we retain less and less of it.
A good example of this is that before I had a cellphone with contact storing capability, I knew by heart the phone numbers of anyone that I would have reason to call. Now that has shrunken to basically immediate family only. Because I don’t HAVE to know the numbers anymore.
Again, as our dependence on electronic storage and google, etc continues to increase, the general reduction in retained knowledge will continue to decrease.