Where's the New Literature?

Has anyone else noticed the questionable quality of much of the short fiction being published? So much of it seems escapist in nature. What ever happened to literature making us think about life? In fact, what's happened to the idea of literature? Lately, I see so much emphasis on stories that take place on the fringe of society. If not that, then editors feel this compulsion that the stories they accept have to end in redemption. What about characters failing to redeem? Students used to ask me, "Why do short stories have to be so depressing?" I used to answer that short stories reflect life, and life can often be sad, but our great privelege is that we have the power to learn from the characters' mistakes. We can live better for their failure. Now, characters seldom fail. Short stories have become like television programs-- in thirty minutes or an hour, no matter the challenges, this thing is going to come out happy.
With most literary magazines, I have to read ten stories before I find one that's really after something -- one that's trying to tell me about the human condition. Editorial preference seems to be on style or craft -- not substance.
Does anyone know of a great literary magazine that consistently publishes literary short fiction? I'd like to know.