I don't know about this thread, but I have not noticed too much "butchering" at a couple of other GTA forums I hang out at.
To tell you the truth, most of the people I work with have College degrees, but they still can't spell or even compose grammatically correct sentences. My boss is one of them and actually many are management who I have noticed lack some skills in spelling and grammar. They live with MS Word Spell & Grammar checker. They cannot do without it. I rarely use it but probably should because I am no English major either, and I tend to write sentences that drag on sometimes. Especially late at night when I am tired. My wife with a high school education cannot write too well either and her spelling is equivelant to 5th or 6th grade at best, if I had to rate it. So I don't think College has anything to do with it. I did not learn how to read & write in College. I took mostly math and science classes, phych, economics, German, and all those required "humanities" (and/or Arts) courses.. Surprisingly an English or Writing class was not a requirement(!) if you were an engineering major. Most of us pick up writing skills mainly in Grammar school and high school. That's where/when you pick up the basics and a good foundation for most things academic. So I don't think a higher education is a contributing factor to proper spelling & grammar skills in most cases.
Everyone functions at their own level. Truth be told, my dad could write much better than me, and my brother who is a little older also writes better. So I believe that the public school education or curicculum has diminished somewhat, but I would also have to say it is the individual and how much attention they paid in school while growing up. We all day dreamed in class, some more, some less (I would dream of going home and shooting my 760 Crosman back in the late 70's, early 80's, no BS!) and dreaded doing homework, but if I didn't bring home a B or better, I 'd be grounded. Actually unless it was a B+ my dad wasn't too happy. So I was sort of forced to be an above average student, study, pay attention in class, and try harder. In conclusion, "how" you were brought up also has a lot to do with it in my opinion. By that I don't mean just how your parents reacted to your grades, but who you hung out with, how much supervision you received after school, etc. as a child, all contributed to the academic or grammar/spelling level one is at today. Of course that's just my opinion and what I have learned and observed meeting different people in the last 43yrs.