I certainly believe that the phenomenon of grade inflation which is now linked to student evaluations of teaching is adversely affecting higher education. Faculty and administrators must face up to the fact that student evaluations of teaching (SET) are causing many faculty to avoid intellectually challenging material in order to placate students, i.e. keep them happy with light work loads. The student does not know they are being robbed until they are long graduated or perhaps they will never appreciate their lack of intellectual progress. Most of what students deem to be education is in fact is basic recall of knowledge, which means the ability to cram the night before the exam. While important this sort of learning is lacking because it is the development of critical thinking that should be the major focus of any college-level course. I believe that these higher level thinking skills can and must be developed at the pre-baccalaureate level, this is the professional duty of every university and college faculty member.
If we were to measure the intellect progress of our graduating seniors based on Bloom's Taxonomy I believe we would be sorely disappointed. Most of our students would only function at the bottom end, i.e. basic recall of information. In this increasingly competitive global economy, intellectual property (IP) is king. IP is only developed at the higher end of Bloom's Taxonomy (BT), evaluation-synthesis-analysis of knowledge. It is my sincere belief that even average students are capable of functioning at the upper end of BT. Reaching that goal though is not easy and certainly not effortless for either the student or teacher and will cause a certain degree of discomfort on the part of the student. Testing the intellectual limits and conditioning students for that feeling of uncertainty when dealing with problems whose solutions do not come instantaneously is not a recipe for high SET scores. SET is more a measure of student satisfaction. Satisfaction with one's education and the absolute amount of learning are not the same thing. One can be quite satisfied with oneself and the teacher with minimal amounts of learning. The consumer model is now often used in higher education. The paying customer, i.e. student can pull up and fill up on education, with the delivery product being the professor. SET measure the satisfaction with that delivery.
The lack of development of critical thinking skills in American undergraduates does not bode well for the national economy. I believe deficiencies in the American undergraduate education system of the past 10-15 years is leading to an immigration policy meant to address partially the problem. The question of where all of the good paying jobs have gone is simply answered as - we still have them, they just require the ability to function at the upper end of Bloom's Taxonomy.