Anyone else feel a sense of loss for the country and the times we live in?Yes! For me this sense of the new replacing the old and being far inferior has been going for a long time. Remember the changeover for example from Johnny Carson to Jay Lenno? That was a big one for me, like the end of an era as it hit me that even the "big band" style "Tonight Show Orchestra" was replaced by a more contemporary style band and when Johnny Carson died I felt a profound sadness. I remember years ago reflecting on how as these older performers pass away they have no one like them to take their place and what does fill their void is nothing like them at all but much more worldly for lack of a better word. I'm not suggesting that these older folks were in any way saints or whatever but they had a certain quality and represented a more dignified time that is swiftly leaving us with them. Your example of Ryan Seacrest taking Dick Clark's place is a great example.I hardly watch any modern TV but regularly put on DVDs of old shows like My Three Sons or Columbo and I think to myself that in one way these shows feel like just not that long ago these were what was shown on TV and in other ways it feels like a different lifetime ago that the world was more like this.Anyway, I totally get what you are saying.