| | Reading Perren's article again, I see that this all comes down to keeping one's word. The post took the long route to the last three paragraphs.
As for the decay in modern society:
Republic, VIII, 562b-563e.
the father accustoms himself to become like his child and fears his sons, while the son likens himself to his father, and feels neither shame nor fear in front of his parents, so he may be free ; the metic [563a] becomes the equal of a citizen and the citizen of a metic, and similarly with the foreigner.
It indeed so happens, he said.
To these, said I, such trifles do add up: the teacher, in such a case, fears his pupils and fawns upon them, while pupils have in low esteem their teachers as well as their overseers; and, overall, the young copy the elders and contend hotly with them in words and in deeds, while the elders, lowering themselves to the level of the young, sate themselves with pleasantries [563b] and wit, mimicking the young in order not to look unpleasant and despotic.
http://plato-dialogues.org/faq/faq003.htm
On a related theme, I offer this.
Lord Acton once said, "Every institution finally perishes by an excess of its own first principle." (quoted in Lifecraft, by Forest Church, p 70).
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/16/messages/324.html
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