It's not just that people seem to rise to positions of power and importance despite their moral failings. In some examples, it seems like the moral failings are part of a person's brand, seen as a positive instead of a negative.
Did we lower our standards? Do we have any standards?
Cultural anthropologist Grant McCracken thinks we should; he lays out the case and the standards in his book The New Honor Code: A Simple Plan for Raising Our Standards and Restoring Our Good Names. The author visits to describe his vision and a pathway to realizing it.