For example, National Press Club televised presentations are more often than not broadcast in full. But it is disappointingly amazing how often, after watching a full and thoughtful speech on, say, Australia’s position on gender equality, the news bulletins will later carry reports of the speech.

“Australia most sexist country in world, expert tells national media,” or “Women push men out of boardrooms, nation told.” And people think that’s what happened.

And I’ll sit there thinking: “That’s not what was said at all. What an insult to an intellectually challenging speaker and a carefully crafted address.”

There is an old sub-editor’s lament: I strive to be brief but I become obscure. But even that’s not the case now. It’s not just obscurity. It’s often verging on dangerous.

I have been reading a lot of Bill Bryson recently and, apart from waking Mrs Whacked frequently to read some truly funny paragraphs, I find myself in fierce agreement with his views on western society’s descent into stupidity.

In his latest book, The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes From a Small Island, this US-born Anglophile tells a story of trying to check into a hotel in Texas. He had to give his home address, and he did. His London address.

“Can you spell that?” the check-in clerk said. “L.O.N.D.O.N…”

“And what country is that in?”

“England.”

“Can you spell that?”

“E.N.G.L.A.N.D”

“Is that a real country? The computer won’t accept it. You can have London, France.”

“Ok,” says Bryson. “I live in London, France.”

I thought it was just me; that I’d reached my grumpy old man period and everything was infuriating, dumb and the loss of general knowledge was becoming terminal. But Bryson points out that it’s global, in the English-speaking world at least.

He quotes studies at a US university where senior students could not place Miami on a map of the US. The university was in Miami. A couple could not place the US on a map of the world.

Bryson also places chunks of blame at the foot of social media, 24-hour digital news cycles and a self-destructive addiction to staring at allegedly smart screens.

He recalled a story of a couple who drove into the sea off England’s west coast because the satellite navigation system in their car failed to point out that a) the place they were going to was an island and b) that blue zone on the screen represents the Irish Sea.

Never before in history have we had so much access to so much information but know so little other than how to find a film of a cat playing a piano. And posting images of our meals on-line.

Many world studies have mapped it. The University of Hartford says IQ in western society has fallen seven per cent in the past generation. A Danish study on military service candidates shows a drop of 1.5 IQ points since 1998.

And one intriguing study by Stanford University says that while the decline appears true, it doesn’t really matter because the development of technology means we no longer need to be intelligent to survive. It is no longer so important to think. A future Rene Descartes may well remark: I think, therefore I am …. I think.