Haha -- says the guy working on his PhD in contemporary Irish fiction! But I agree that it's a good thing when philosophers try to make their ideas intuitive and accessible to people. I think that's true even if only because it's easy to make mistakes when you've completely divorced yourself from common sense, and intuition is a really great way to catch errors or problems in your reasoning.
That being said, I don't think the necessity of focused study in philosophy has as much to do with a movement away from the democratization of ideas as the author seems to suggest. Even the ancient Greeks cited their philosophical contemporaries, and it should surprise no one that giants like Plato and Aristotle got to where they were by studying under the top philosophers of their times. Good philosophy is difficult to do, and our thinking gets better (though it can also get worse, if we aren't careful) as we understand more of what others have had to say before us. That understanding takes time and effort to build, and so it seems reasonable to think that if you want to be a valuable contributer to your field, then you should probably study it first.
I also don't think it necessarily reflects badly on philosophers if they don't feel like spending their time discussing foundational issues with people who ascribe to any of the obviously false, problematic, or incomplete positions that characterize much of the general public. Views like "Health care is way too expensive and there's a horrible shortage of doctors" are all too common, and if I have to explain supply and demand to another arrogant, uninformed activist, I might cry (that's all talk of course, we all know I'm a big softie and gladly explain these things every time -- the crying comes later).
But I do agree with the general thrust of the author's article. I love the idea that anyone can read my blog and tell me what they think (even if very few people actually do), and I think it's important that as philosophers, we make an effort to inform and inspire those around us. So far as we're seeing a trend in that direction, I think that's something to celebrate.
