I wish this were true. When I am on the JMT or other high traffic trails, I am not terribly surprised when I see signs of human impact---trash, unburied human waste, soap bubbles in the water, somebody's uneaten Ramen noodles at the lake edge, etc. What I find most heartbreaking though is when I find these same signs of human impact far off-trail. One of my favorite things about traveling cross country is the sense that you are seeing a place that very few others have visited. I also love not having to purify my drinking water.It is only on the popular trails that you have to plug your nose. Although I'm not happy about the conditions you ran into, I am happy that the bulk of the traffic stays in certain popular areas in the Sierra because that leaves the bulk of the backcountry fairly pristine.
Last July, while hiking the section of the SHR between N. Glacier Pass and Tuolumne, I was reveling in the apparent "pristine" quality of Bench Canyon. No sooner were the words out of my mouth, I was horrified to encounter a giant pile of unburied human poo in a sandy patch perhaps 50 feet from where we had pitched our tent complete with a equally giant wad of T.P. Granted, one has to work pretty hard to get to Bench Canyon----there is no easy way in or out. It absolutely killed me that someone who had the backpacking chops to get to a place such as Bench Canyon could be so lazy, ignorant and self-absorbed. Over the years, I've sadly found lots of soap bubbles eddied out in backcountry streams and lakes. I think, perhaps, some people take the "biodegradable" label on their Camp Suds a bit too literally and wash themselves and their pots directly in the stream. So, I totally get the rant of the original poster. I share your pain.