I earned my PhD at UC Davis, and consider myself extremely fortunate to have been accepted as a student there. UC Davis is one of the top research universities in the world.
What do you mean, "bought and paid for"? My funding came from a variety of sources: National Institutes of Environmental Health, Superfund, California Agricultural Research Station, some private fellowships from individual donors and biotech companies. In no case was I ever told that I needed to produce certain results or lose funding. Scientists cannot produce specific results on demand--science doesn't work that way.
Your funding says everything to me, no offense, the first three have no agenda?
We all start with a premise, a theorem, a question and then go on to to do the five steps. Just sayin’. Sorry you don’t like what I am speculating on, but I feel strongly about this, CA in the seventies was a hotbed of environmental b/s.