In my general experience, this is terribly, terribly true. I also think that students are conditioned to be molly-coddled and thus walk around as entitled as the day is long. Most institutions do nothing to change the attitude that teacher and student must have an adversarial relationship, with the teacher standing in the way of true learning and exploring of interests. And why would they change it? The institutions are generally responsible for it, even if it's due to pressure from government agencies. The best most primary and secondary school teachers can do is sneak in some teaching moments where they can and leave trails of breadcrumbs they hope students will follow, though most of the time the students either miss the breadcrumbs or complain that they don't want breadcrumbs, they want cheeseburgers.
I love your analogy to finish that comment. It's not a matter of allowing students to truly learn anymore, and can you really blame the teachers? Once you get below a certain class average of percentage of students passing you're likely to face Administrative Action, at some point you have to watch out for your own livelihood. It's a combination of Teacher's Unions not always looking out for the students, parents of the students not caring enough to make a difference, and probably largely on the administration of school districts.