The academic rot definitely started in Australian and NZ universities when they became businesses surviving on and profiteering from fee-paying students, especially foreign students. Since then, many post-grad courses (masters and PHD) have transitioned from “original research” to “coursework” based, in part to appease foreign students.

My own graduate degree in Architecture has now been rebadged as a “masters” and the “graduate degree” is issued after several years of study; as far as I this is dumbing down graduates and academia.