The Bed of Procrustes, did you read it too?
“Academia is to knowledge what prostitution is to love; close enough on the surface but, to the nonsucker, not exactly the same thing.” Nassim Nicholas...
Government subsidizing academia is one big part of the problem. By giving money to the academia and credit to students you are distorting the free market process. This is why there is soo much waste in academia. You have students studying things that has no real job market demand for it. You have more non-teaching employees at academia than teaching employees by a wide margin. Academia is a place for bureaucratic (BS jobs) to thrive.