The thing happening here is of a piece with the enshittification Doctorow talks about (a useful model despite overuse) but it’s bigger than that. “The collapse of the value of knowable truth under the dead weight of financialization” is probably too simple, but idk.
Thinking about the panicky rush to replace teetering systems of knowledge with plausible-word machines + the old days of plaster dust in milk and spent tea leaves boiled in sheep shit and resold as new.