Art certainly has declined.  It is like money.  Bad money drives out good money.  Some say it is in the eye of the beholder art is all around you or more opportunities fore many more.  What they are saying is that people who have no talent can now promote a lack of ability.  Monkeys and animals win art contests.  Rappers make noise and take the place of true artists.  And it is all around us.  Yes, and people with talent have been lost that our age missed because others can throw paint on a canvas and call it art or say dirty words and take off their clothes and get on the stage or in movies.  We are lost in a maze of non-art.  

 Tom