In my opinion, simple inflation adjustment is not that accurate. In particular, notice that certain costs, like higher education, have increased significantly faster than inflation since the 60s. And since rocket science requires a highly educated workforce, you end up with higher salaries relative to the median. I'd actually like to see an analysis of the number of people working on the program. I bet Apollo had 2x or 3x more people working on it than Artemis.
But I haven't done the math/research, so I could be very wrong.
It's not just your opinion. It's widely known in economics. It's so widely known in fact that statistics agencies state exactly how they come up with inflation figures, which basket of goods they base it on and adjustments.
>The quality of our education has fallen in addition to the rising costs.
Maybe as an average because more people are being educated, but I find it hard to believe that our top students now are any less educated than the top students in the past.
Our top students today may very well be less educated than their counterparts from the 1960s be because grade inflation has increased significantly and therefore our top students are not challenged as much.
But I haven't done the math/research, so I could be very wrong.