I completely agree with what you say. I started off trying to say one thing, but it went quickly into another direction - primarily born of the frustration of finding the good prospective engineers amongst the huge amount of chaff out there.

We definitely aren't a meritocracy right now, but we really should be as the constant influx of those that either brute force their way in, or simply walk in over a non-existent bar, just dilutes everything.

Thanks for taking the time to reply in so much detail.