Reactionary changes are never going to go away but the entire thrust of technological progress is "you don't need to learn."

Amusing Ourselves to Death and Superbloom both describe the same thing: methods of communiation become more efficient and education becomes more simplified, to the point of not being valued.

The nadir of which is Trump shitposting policy decisions on Twitter because he has no literacy, no intellect, and people like him because of that because he's just as uneducated as they are.

Back in the early days of the US intellect was king, it's how the US became what it was as far as I know it.

It wasn't "the early days." It was true until the 1970s when the evangelicals pivoted and started to get power.