ABSTRACT
The rate of creativity in OECD countries is in decline. It has been so for a long time. A pronounced downturn began in the 1970s. This fall closely tracked the rise of mass higher education. A noticeable sharp downward turning-point occurs around 1974. This is when the post-industrial, post-modern era began. 1 The rhetoric of the knowledge society supposed an age of intense creation. The actual record of the period was tepid. The mass university was the signature institution of the post-modern, post-industrial era. The singular failure of the era was the failure of that institution. It promised much but delivered little.
