America remains a scientifically ignorant nation for two reasons: the resurgence of fundamentalist religion during the past 40 years, and secondly, the low level of science education in American elementary and secondary schools, as well as many tertiary colleges.
While television ratings for Cosmos may have stunned media critics and your average fundamentalist, “Americans continue to poll more like Iranians or Nigerians than Europeans or Canadians on questions of evolution, scriptural inerrancy, the presence of angels and demons, and so forth."
http://www.alternet.org/education/results-are-america-dumb-and-road-getting-dumber
This is an old story, though. It may not be a question of becoming increasingly ignorant; we may simply be just as ignorant as we've always been. H.L. Mencken's articles regarding the Scopes Trial seem as pertinent regarding education and the law in Tennessee and elsewhere in the U.S. as they were 90 years ago. There seems to be a strain of religious fundamentalism here that is inherent, and an ignorance which is invincible. Education doesn't seem to matter.