Maybe - simple linear, serial progression?
It appears that those of us afflicted with Boolean inculcation at some point, have diminished that alleged capacity for (no more than) "three ideas in a sentence"; this while -- parallel processing is still required of English majors, merely to read Dante or Swift, say.
Still, one must adapt to constraints, mustn't one?

:-0


PS - dunno that simple/linear is dumbed-down, necessarily.
It just loses the chance of drawing parallels as one goes -- pretty much how many grey-cells seem to cross-pollinate, looking for er related experience!. At least mine do (and, apparently those of many lecturers ... whose style was not negotiable amidst us plebes who Would be graded on comprehension.)

PPS - some sages aver that, the 'way we read' is mostly about the er, 'Moving Centre' (of the mind) and not the Intellectual Centre -- as would seem intuitively the case. Thing is (in this model) -- the Moving Centre is Faster! -- similarly, the Instinctive Centre is The Fastest part of the mind.

(Powerful analytical tool, that 'Centres' gig -- but not easily flushed-out in a sentence or two.)
I find such things Interesting, as do all Language folk yet encountered.
But then, so are Vincent Black Shadows. 'S all in our Minds.