The one question the movie never answered

I'm wondering something that was alluded to, but not necessarily fleshed out in the movie too well. My question is this, when exactly did society become harmfully stupid?

I'm wondering because these recent plane crashes and disappearances are seriously worrying me. And from my friends in air traffic control I've heard that they have been ringing alarm beeps for a while now.

This seems to be because of incompetence coming from above. We have heard about terms like "brain drain" when a country loses its smartest people. But at what point has the whole world turned so dumb that it would take someone from the past to save us from ourselves?

I'm kinda worried we are already there in reality.