CAs have the same problem as real estate brokers (based on my reading of David Fleming's excellent blog) – too many self-serving slackers who wish lower standards upon us all to make it as easy as possible for the "bare minimum" to be enough to slide by.

We arguably have tougher standards than others, but there's clearly an ever-present fight to keep standards from becoming too tough – or audit reports from being too useful!

You've reminded me of the "Quality of Earnings" discussions – and papers! – my university professors had with us. Hmm.