I don't believe we are getting stupider. I may be in the minority here, but the level of intelligence is not the problem in my opinion.
If you bother to take a look around you, you may realize that raw intelligence is quite common. A lot of the people we mark as dumb are actually rather intelligent and thoughtful.
What they aren't....is smart.
And that's the main problem. We are becoming more intelligent by the generation as there are more things to deal with, but we are not getting exactly smarter because the classic model of education is failing. People are becoming duller because they cannot be roused into interest in most any subject. The classic model of education which includes books heaped upon books of boring, mostly irrelevant information, is not cutting it anymore.
As long as easy entertainment is more approachable than access to any sort of knowledge, and as long as the basest of our fellow men are glorified for their dumb acts rather than for knowledge, we will continue to see our potential dwindling away to nothing.
So no, we're not getting stupider, we're just getting duller. With a proper reevaluation of the aging education system, one that permits it to exist alongside current social interests, we may see a critical thinking society again with other interests aside from Honey Boo Boo, My super sweet world class or some of the other atrocities on television right now. Otherwise, get ready for a Transmetropolitan level decay in all facets of our society.
tl;dr: Engage the youth in education again and all else will follow.
