Additionally, I think this same problem has been resonating throughout academia. The growing amount of students that cannot break down and understand problems with critical thinking skills in stem classes is becoming rediculous. Interestingly, the trend I mentioned and the trend of theoretical physics are rather correlated. Additionally, it seems like the sane problem is happening in all of the other physical sciences. Anything fundamental tends to be avoided in favored of more applications focused research. I'll even go out on a branch and say some of the same problems are manifesting in the humanities and "soft" (as bs as that idea is) sciences.