Just my observations...
Ten years ago, I ran across lots of folks who couldn't functionally read. They may have met the expectation required to graduate high school, but that's been meaningless for a long time.
Today, I seldom run across the same problem... they can't spell, they can't think logically (even worse than before)... but they can read directions, and then choose not to follow them.
Texting and cell phones are responsible for the improvement. It ain't much better, but it is a whole different problem. One person, a guy in his mid 50's, still refuses to go near a computer. By all appearances, he seemed to be functionally illiterate, but now texts all day long... he has discovered pornographic internet memes with his phone and abused the discovery enough I had to block his number. He has no concept about how connected he already is via his phone, and thinks he'd need to take a class to turn on a desktop.
These problems aren't limited to young folks, anybody who doesn't care if they appear stupid can do it. I screw up a bunch, I'm mostly a two finger pecker (which should make my longer posts that much more impressive), I would make you run out of red ink trying to correct all of my grammatical errors... but at least I don't want to look like an idiot.