Maybe your question is not the right one :)
I think there are always been 'visually educated' people (interested and educated in art, architecture, engineering etc disciplines, where visual language makes big part of it - like you yourself) and 'uneducated' ones, who just see what they think they see.
What about 'horrific keystoning in glossy publications', then this may be the result of shifting overall attitude from 'make it great' to 'make it good enough' (sorry I don't know correct english terms, I hope I can be understood) - this is usually much cheaper also :) And maybe some editors think that they may gather wider audience this way - all this I have no way to know.
(Example from different area - NG photographs were/are? highly praised, photographers work hard to be included into NG photographing team - but NG special editions nowadays contain images bought from stock photo sites... This was not the only reason I canceled my subscription, but one of the reasons certainly.)