Personally, I blame Curt "KABANG" of Nirvana for the decrease of proficiency in today's music. You have to realize that a lot of the guys making music today grew up on Nirvana rather than Van Halen or Zeppelin. I'll admit that his popularity was a backlash against oversaturation of a lot of unimaginative "wankers". However, teaching guitar in the 90's was a hell of a lot easier than teaching in the 80's! The kids were just interested in learning chords and how to sound grungy rather than learning scales or technique, and during that time frame, you were actually jeered at and made fun of you you knew how to solo and liked to.

Personally, I think there are very few players that can hold your attention with long solos, but we certainly are due for another Satch, Van Halen, Page, Beck, Or Eric Johnson to come out and ignite some passion in the kids.

My two cents! lol