I don't really think education is easier these days. It is just different. In some ways, current students are in an easier position than previously. Much more information is available and more accessible. For example in sciences, in the past, when you needed some paper, you had to send a letter to the author, they would have to spend time replying and actually sending it to you. You would have to wait before it arrives and then ideally reply back saying thank you.
Today you go on the internet, send them an email and within a few minutes you have it in PDF in your mailbox... you don't have to spend time searching words in a dictionary, you just type it and the computer shows it to you. You don't need to spend hours drawing graphs, Excel will do it for you and even much more accurately, there is no need to redraw the entire graph if you realize you made a mistake somewhere in the data.....
But then we have to look at it from the other point of view. Yes we do have much more data and information available, but that also means you have to know how to find what you are looking for, you have to be able to filter out what is and what is not reliable - especially when using the internet. You have to be able to actually use the computer - people are not born with computer skills, being able to type fast, use MS Office.... I also think languages are much more important these days, maybe not so much for the English speakers, but previously, in my country, since most things were done locally, you didn't really need to learn any other language, today if you don't know at least English you cannot apply for basically any job. And in some ways, since you save time by for example not having to send letters and wait for replies, not having to search through books, but simply do a Google search... you save time, but you have to then use that saved time productively and more work done is expected from you.
We are slowly moving to an age where it is not important to memorize information, know it from top of your head, but rather being able to know where to look for it and how to use it. And that is not necessarily easier, since the amount of data and information is much larger.