Outstanding job, KeenBeen. Enjoy your celebration! I am just beginning the start of my PhD journey and I am envious you are already done. Well done, Dr.

Unfortunately I think a lot of it has to do with the sense of entitlement and lack of accountability that exists in so many of our youth.  I am 49 years old and about to start my PhD program; I was raised in a different era where it was continually impressed upon us to make something of ourselves and being told "cheaters never win"; obviously some are getting away with it, but then again a school can at anytime go back, and if they can prove plagiarism, they can revoke the degree. I hope for the sake of the rest of us and academia as a whole they do that, until they do, those contemplating doing the same will continue cheating.  Unfortunately it is imperative that academia make examples out of these folks in order for the word to get out that plagiarism doesn't pay anymore. If a University gets involved in a major plagiarism scandal, they risk losing credibility and accreditation, and that is something that will hurt the rule abiding alumni the most.