"I'm not dead yet! I think I'll go for a walk now."
  -- from Monty Python's "Search for the Holy Grail"

Truth really is stranger than fiction...

Yes the epidemic has infected our culture at large, not just students. People justify their entitlement mentality with loaded words like "fair".

And if they don't get their perceived entitlement they will blame you, attack you, tax you, steal from you. It's easier that way. Existentialists like Jean-Paul Sartre called this behavior "leveling". In a purely relativist culture (as ours is becoming) it is sufficient to "get ahead" by pulling down or punishing those who excel. Ideally, some "watchdog" organizations will keep an eye out or anyone who is doing too well, and help you tear them down.

For more examples of leveling, look at the effect of labor unions on productivity, our current obsession with hating "the rich" (anyone who makes more than me), affirmative action hiring practices, maximum speeds enforced in quarter-mile drag racing, and of course... our public schools, where they "bring up the low and bring down the high"... and where our children get their first lessons in leveling.