" ... While Clark was recruiting, Lewis was delayed in Pittsburgh because the men he had hired to build the keelboat were drunkards who took advantage of the fact that it was too late in the year for Lewis to hire someone else. "
The OP's assumption is that the current crop of youngsters do not have a good work ethic, and that observation may be understandable based on his experiences. But I don't believe things have actually changed all that much. Like Lewis and Clarke, stories told by a field officer in WW2 confirm that one batch of soldiers might be hard working, and the next batch worthless slackards.