An article by William Damon, published on Defining Ideas

Although truthfulness is essential for good human relationships and personal integrity, it is often abandoned in pursuit of other life priorities.

The problem now is that we seem to be reaching a dysfunctional tipping point in which an essential commitment to truthfulness no longer seems to be assumed in our society. If this is indeed the case, the danger is that the bonds of trust important in any society, and essential for a free and democratic one, will dissolve so that the kinds of discourse required to self-govern will become impossible.