Most of the biggest examples I know of are quite weak in comparison. I may have blind spots, of course. I don't know everything. But it's quite telling that the person who fired me up about freedom, prosperity, western ideals, capitalism, reason, intellectualism, and philosophy died 43 years ago (before I was born) before all this technology existed. I also think you're right though. People obviously have decayed in general (as I'd expect having such weak intellectuals). It's compounding decay.

In some ways, all of this technology has made it harder for people to stand out. There's just so much garbage to sift through that the good voices stay rather small or invisible. Maybe this is a multifaceted issue as they usually are.