[WS:] Corporate structure and feudalism are on polar opposites, but that is academic hair splitting.
More to the point, we need to look at mass literacy in connection with the mode of production. With the advent of corporate capitalism, mass literacy was a requisite to produce an army of white collar workers in the corporate structures. This is still a requisite, but the cognitive skills required for these jobs have been changing. Computerization allows automation and taylorization of the white collar jobs, so the requirement is no longer to "solve problems" (which requires critical thinking) but operate software (which is basically point, click, no think). This indeed leads to a society with a small number of highly trained individuals designing machinery and software that runs it, and semi-literate masses that push the buttons. We already have a situation of "smart" phones in the hands of dumb people who cannot spell correctly let alone put two thoughts together in a coherent manner.
Stupidity is not natural - it is learned and right now the captains of industry work very hard to run crash courses in stupidity for the masses.
-- Wojtek
"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."