Once We Were Eloquent

Finished reading "The Eloquent President" last night. Have been trying to determine why people no longer worry about what they say and how they say it as they did in Abraham Lincoln's day. The meaning of words doesn't seem to carry the same "meaning" as they once did. Lincoln never referred to the actions of the southern states as "secession" but as "rebellion" - constitutionally the former was legal, and the latter not. Few Presidents, let alone individuals, since Lincoln, have given as much thought to what and how they speak. Have we lowered our standards as a nation, or are our leaders no longer capable of proper discourse?