Communication: Is it a lost art?

I think that people often communicate to deceive.
We have gotten so used to listening to people that try to control us by manipulative speech, that we have accepted that as normal and have maybe even started to communicate with others by trying to say what they want to hear while meaning something very different.

I doubt that most politicians or religious leaders (remember when those were very different kinds of people?) would agree with Quintilian. It seems that intentional ambiguity is the way of public speaking these days.

John