The problem came when someone came along and asked what the value of the humanities was, ...

This is the crux of it, except that I would emphasize "market" value. Economic demands are probably influencing career choice more than ever, and the biggest grants are also selecting for STEM departments' survival, usually. The few humanities and arts classes I took (maybe only ~5?) still changed my life, in another direction than can be approached by STEM stuff.

It seems entirely possible that the shared culture of any dominant tribe, city, region, or country can putrefy after a lack of problems/stressors, which promotes cultural "fitness" breakdown. Like, the very act of being great means that you're gonna lapse in your fortification at a societal level, and develop destructive tendencies in your institutions.

And I'm also at least somewhat a victim of this:

So it was weird going to college and being confronted with the idea almost for the very first time(!) that the United States' conduct wasn't undeniably perfect throughout its relatively young history. And maybe the civil war was more than just a slightly naughty thing that our ancestors here in the South did because they were wholeheartedly committed to "StAtEs RiGhTs".

Yeah, my jaunt into the humanities needed to happen. Or, conversely, I was brainwashed by the liberal academic establishment. I dunno, it's a tossup.