My experience with professors and the concept of "study skills" is that there is often a skewed perception of how students should learn that is colored by their own experience. Many of my classmates did not regularly go to lectures, and most of them did very well. When they struggled in a class or the teacher was a good lecturer, they went. Professors who cared were often the ones who never missed a lecture themselves. This could be an indication that the traditional yardsticks of who is a "good student" are breaking down.

I would also chalk up the students generally being less organized to the stress of the situation, rather than a degeneration of study skills.