I emphasize again that I was speaking about the situation 25 years ago, and don't know much about the present one first-hand. All I know that the curriculum did change, if only because politicians wanted all the communist-era school books replaced. (I was aware of the rankings in PISA studies, but I can't compare that to anything 25 years ago.) Teachers also count, and even if the old Prussian model of strict teachers doing instruction (that rigidity you describe) was not good and there were attempts to change that, I know at least that much that teacher quality decreased, too.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}