When did lying become acceptable?

In a recent New York Times opinion piece Justin McBrayer laments how this country has lost its moral compass. He and his philosophy professor colleagues have observed that the overwhelming majority of college freshmen in their classrooms view moral claims as mere opinions that are not true.  He makes the point that this troubling phenomenon is rooted in the Common Core standards that  require that students be able to “distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text.”  For example, using these evolving standards “all men are created equal” and “drug dealers belong in prison” are considered to be opinions, because these assertions cannot be tested or proven, and are supposedly subjective determinations. The implications are not just academic, because if there are no moral truths how does society prosecute criminal transgressions, or if all humans are not created equal, then why vote for any political system that doesn't benefit you over others? The corollary of turning opinion into fact is equally pernicious. Over the last twenty years this country has tolerated what are simply bold faced lies made to support an agenda or position. "I did not have sex...”, Mitt Romney was a murderer, Ferguson suspect had his hands up, Benghazi was about a video, emails lost at the IRS, and the list goes on. News stories used to be spun depending on the desired impact, these days stories are simply invented. The result is that younger generations are rightfully suspicious of any information that may be politicized.