The level of education quality has taken a nosedive
I agree, but that has nothing to do with what you're claiming it does.
Quality of education has taken a nosedive in universities because the kids they're admitting are coming from school systems and communities where the quality of education has
also taken a nosedive because admin refuse to hold anyone back (or, hell, even let teachers hand out 0s), books are being stripped from shelves, and all parents need to do to get their way is bitch, moan, and threaten to escalate whatever issue they're having - schools and teachers have lost autonomy.
Instead of earning grades and diplomas by actually putting in the effort and doing the work these kids are just being handed diplomas or being passed along to the next grade for "doing their time". Expect it to get worse before it gets better, because "giving grace" has only escalated since COVID - which has become an easy scapegoat for why many of these kids are potentially drastically behind where they should be ("COVID" isn't a good reason for why a senior in HS is reading at a 3rd grade level).
Because these kids are used to being passed along without putting in any real effort, and at the day universities and schools are businesses; they'll lower their standards to accommodate these kids because they want their money. It also doesn't help that full-time professors are becoming more and more rare with colleges and universities preferring to employ adjuncts.
I've taught in both the US and Korea and it's literally night and day in how we approach and treat education at a societal level compared to the gauntlet that is the Korean education system. The quality of education in the US hasn't declined because of "wOkE", it's declined because at a societal level we just don't give a shit.