This is a loss.
Science belongs to the amateurs. Prior to WWII, it did, for the most part. There wasn’t even a term for scientist beyond ‘natural philosopher’.
Government is a generally necessary, but unfailingly bad thing. It’s a tyranny of mediocrity, for the most part.
God rest Friedman.
Everybody loves to quote Ike's farewell address regarding the "Military Industrial Complex," but Ike also issued a word of warning in his address regarding your exact same point.
"Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been over shadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite."
Government is a generally necessary, but unfailingly bad thing. It’s a tyranny of mediocrity.
Profound.
I’m stealing your phrase.
I'm copying spudville.