I think this, when I left school an apprenticeship was a good path to go, I started this, but did A levels in the evening, then university when it was considered that only the top 10% academically did so, just a few years later and anything other than university was worthless, and basically "the top 90% academically achieved the top 10% level"!!!..
I think part of the apparent changes over the years have come from the gradual loss of apprenticeships as an entry in to a profession and towards collage/university education and exams ....
In addition though, the whole financial situation has changed, as i started work, you bought tooling etc to last 25+ years, you trained apprentices because they would be with the company for life (Most of the older guys had been with the company for 40-50 years); soon after the finance arrangements indicated that the investment must pay for itself within 3-5 years, well you cannot justify apprentices on that basis!