&quot;<i>There is tons of funding.</i>&quot;<p>I&#x27;d have to agree with this. With the possible exception of the cold war, in certain fields, there is more now than any time historically. Before WWII, &quot;professional scientific research&quot; was a pretty rare thing; certain large companies did it (out of which comes the &quot;applied&quot; and &quot;pure&quot; distinction in many older fields, I believe) and certain educational institutions (but most were essentially teaching gigs with a spare closet for lab space).<p>Now, there&#x27;s lots of money, but lots of faces feeding at the trough, too. And lots of reasons why breeding more scientists who subsequently starve isn&#x27;t going to stop.