The major problem with Academia (actually the Academia subset where I'm unfortunately stuck in) is entirely different.
Here it is very rare that people above grad students and perhaps postdocs do any research at all. They're just managers, except in rare occasions or in the very best places. Naturally, it is extremely difficult that anything good science-wise comes out of this.
The structure is frighteningly similar to a corporation, except that corporations usually end up dying if they're inefficient, whereas research institutions only need to produce papers to get funding—and that's an easy game to play.
I can hardly think of Professors in say a Math dept. managing their students. Yes, they're advisors, but they also conduct their own research.
You can often tell how much research a prof does by the size of their group. If they have 2 grad students and no post docs, they're probably active in a lot of research. If they have 45 grad students and 15 post docs, they're probably sitting on committees, writing grants proposals or are travelling to conference for 99% of their time. That's not necessarily a bad thing either, there is plenty of good work done by profs in a management role.
Not the same subject area, but this is why places such as Janellia Farms [1] restrict the size of their research groups. A PI with more than 6 people under her is considered a manager rather than a researcher.
Here it is very rare that people above grad students and perhaps postdocs do any research at all. They're just managers, except in rare occasions or in the very best places. Naturally, it is extremely difficult that anything good science-wise comes out of this.
The structure is frighteningly similar to a corporation, except that corporations usually end up dying if they're inefficient, whereas research institutions only need to produce papers to get funding—and that's an easy game to play.
I can hardly think of Professors in say a Math dept. managing their students. Yes, they're advisors, but they also conduct their own research.