[seltzered]

Read iTulip.com / the book "The post-castastrophy economy"

I'd argue it was the rise of the FIRE (finance, insurance, real estate) economy that grew very rapidly over the past 30 years. The FIRE economy is opposite to the classical producer - consumer economy.

There's plenty of times I sometimes wish I just made money like my friends doing trading/finance/etc. instead of studying electrical engineering. I'd get to work downtown instead of in a far away suburb too.

[BrentRitterbeck]

There are people with strong scientific, mathematical, and technological backgrounds working in the FIRE space. This is directly the result of a lack of funding for traditional science. FIRE didn't take people from traditional science. FIRE absorbed scientifically-inclined people who otherwise wouldn't have a place to put their background to use.

Fund traditional science more, and the prestige will come back. Traditional scientific research is expensive.

EDIT: Here's a recent link (a few months ago) that illustrates my point:

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-tevatron-is-shutting-down...

[scritic]

I think the rise of the FIRE economy definitely has a role, I agree!