I find it very likely that many "politicians and lazy academics" actually already know it to be false that patents is a cost-effective driver of innovation. How

I find it very likely that many "politicians and lazy academics" actually already know it to be false that patents is a cost-effective driver of innovation. However, it is just so darn easy to count patent and claim something like "innovation is rising" or "patent count is falling, we have to hand out more patents so innovation can be seen to rise" etc.