The typical FAR book published by ASA gets 25 pages thicker every year, on average.

As far as pilot mill CFIs...a flight school I previously instructed at wouldn't hire any wet-ticket CFIs from Comair Academy, FSI, or ATP due to previous bad experiences. I was witness to the interview that caused this policy - I have never seen somebody hold a pilot certificate that was so wholly unprepared and uneducated as to the tasks and responsibilities of the job they were interviewing before. Not saying that all folks that come from those schools can't teach, but its not out of line to say that schools like that aren't there to teach you how to teach, they're there to get you a certificate, and ultimately, an airline job.

FWIW, I might have attended Purdue but I did all my CFI tickets through an FBO twice as fast and half the price of any university program. I taught at Purdue and elsewhere 61 and also was a 141 check instructor at the aforementioned flight school. I challenge anybody to tell me that my instruction was inferior to someone else's simply because of where they learned.