I started teaching at university 15 years ago when I would say the decline had started but things were still decent. If you have been away for ten years then you got out at the right time as it has been a much steeper decline in that time. Students come in basically knowing nothing as the high school systems have just moved through and teaching them the basics in uni that they should have learned in high school makes for and expensive high school 2.0 for them and ultimately puts them 4 years behind and 200k in debt once they graduate as compared to their peers that skipped college altogether and just went to work or start businesses.