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I've looked at some recent high school algebra textbooks. What a disaster. These books are literally written by committee, the "author's" page in the front has a dozen headshots complete with bios. The content inside the book is a mishmash of color photographs, historical information, brain teasers and junk.

The texts are distracting and takes away from what SHOULD BE an uncluttered exposition of the basics of mathematical reasoning.

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I suppose it's just a result of "maths is boring" complaints, hence the attempt to make things a bit more attention-grabbing, but I agree that it distracts from the actual content. Maths does need deep thought and reasoning, which more plain textbook design facilitates.

I remember using the books of Durell[1] when I was in school, and those were definitely quite plain.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._V._Durell

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