Thanks for the responses.
Please don't misunderstand I'm certainly not defending spammy websites that simply regurgitate published information.
If anything I'm more concerned about the idea that SE rankings should be dictated by your PPC spend. This surely undermines the efforts of SEO specialists in that, despite your high quality, unique content, the higher rankings will simply be a matter of advertising budget...
Increasingly internet marketing development is evolving around 'viral' campaigns it is no surprise that many are abandoning the SEO route (
read Harvey Segal's comments here).
In other words are the SE' forcing many away from that route?