Why Are the Top Google Results Such Poor Quality?

A year ago most of the top search engine results were really bad directory type sites that just consisted of long lists of links. Google seems to have sorted out this spam  tactic. People became very frustrated when the entire first page of search results was full of really bad, waste of time sites. The spammers will be back, but they are gone for a while.

Currently many of the page one search results link to article sites with articles which are factually incorrect. Hub Pages results are dreadful in this respect and I have resolved never to click on a Hub Page EVER again.

I was thinking of writing an article about Stilton cheese, one of the loves of my life, so I searched Google to see what was there already.

1. Articles about American Great Lakes cheeses, allegedly like Stilton
2. An article that purported to give a recipe for making Stilton, which was utter drivel
3. A Hub Pages article that I read, which said Stilton is a county in England-Factually incorrect

I tried to leave a comment and to flag the hub-pages article so they could correct the inaccuracy, but the site will only let you do that if you register. No way was I going to register with a site with that low editorial standards, so the inaccuracy still stands.

Hub Pages obviously allows Americans to write about England and English traditions, like Stilton, when those guys would not even be able to find Ebgland on a map.

To answer the question: Why Are the Top Google Results Such Poor Quality? Google seems to attach an awful lot of trust to crappy sites that have no oversight process of what is being written on them.